


Fangs and Friends

by ShittyEnglishMajor



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Blood and Violence, Character Turned Into Vampire, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, It's another vampire fic, Laith, M/M, Pining, That Klance vampire fic no one asked for, They're all monsters in this one, klance, some gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-03-25 07:00:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13828944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShittyEnglishMajor/pseuds/ShittyEnglishMajor
Summary: It's another Klance vampire AU. Except there are more monsters and hopefully this one has a happy ending.Keith wakes up in a house he doesn't recognize, and after attacking the people who'd brought him there to keep him from hurting anyone else (ironic, really) it only gets more confusing. He's told he's been turned into a vampire, all sorts of monsters exist, and the guy he thought was dead for the past three years is actually alive and (kind of) well. It's a roller coaster to say the least and he's not sure how to take any of it. He's thankful for the friends he makes along the way though.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments! I love to hear your thoughts and suggestions! The more comments the more motivated I am to update as frequently as possible!
> 
>  
> 
> This is probably gonna be long af

The blood. _Jesus_. The amount of blood on the cement.  
  
And the brick walls.  
  
And his hands.  
  
And his _face_.  
  
Keith was god shit covered in it. It was dripping down his chin. Down onto the puddle in the pavement.  
  
Puddle.  
  
What a gentle word. Lake was more like it. All under his knees.  
  
Yes he was on his knees. He was on them because his legs were shaking. Well, everything was shaking. His whole body was shaking. He was just staring at the blood, heart pounding, teeth throbbing.  
  
Teeth.  
  
Another funny word. He really meant fangs. His fangs were throbbing. Like, sure, he still had _teeth_ but his fangs were the ones causing the problem. Causing this problem; the blood thing.  
  
Oh, and the body thing.  
  
No, not his body.  
  
Well that too, but no he meant the dead body about a foot away from where he was kneeling. The body that the blood came from. The body that he drained.  
Yes drained, like Dracula kind of drained where he was walking down the street, hood up over his head because every fucking lamp seemed just too bright tonight and the throbbing in his head was driving him nuts. He walked and tried to ignore his heart rate. Tried to ignore the itch under his skin when the guy who walked into his shoulder when he passed smelled good enough to eat. Tried to, was the key word.  
  
Failed is what he really did.  
  
He wasn’t really sure if it was the whole bumping into him thing, or if it was really just the smell thing that sent Keith reeling after him. Running so fast and grabbing him by the shirt so hard Keith was afraid of _himself_. There were few times Keith truly felt afraid of himself but this was definitely in the top 3. He didn’t even look the guy in the face. Didn’t even give him enough of a chance to realize what was going on before Keith was sinking his fangs into the side of his neck and _sucking_.  
  
Sure, it sounds funny. There’s an innuendo in there somewhere and he’d be laughing too if it wasn’t what had actually happened. Wasn’t him who did the thing. Wasn’t him who sucked harder when the taste of the guy’s blood flooded his tongue and holy _fuck_ it tasted the same way water tastes when you finally get a drink after hours of just craving it and dying of thirst.  
  
Keith was apparently dying of thirst.  
  
For blood. Since when? Fuck knows. He sure doesn’t. Just knows that when he’d woken up that morning he’d felt fine. The rest of the day went just as smoothly as it usually does and then all of a sudden, he’s walking home at 9pm and good god does everybody suddenly smell really, really good.  
  
It feels like he’d stood there draining the guy for hours. In reality, it’d probably only been maybe 10 minutes.  
  
The guy stopped squirming after maybe 3.  
  
Passed out around 4.  
  
Keith had to get down on the floor with the guy’s body because he was getting kind of heavy but Keith didn’t want to stop. Couldn’t. Needed to fill up on the taste because fuck was it good. But that good feeling only lasted until his conscience came strolling back in. Pulled him back onto his legs to stare down at the mess he made and just sit and stare and sit and stare and _ohmyfuckinggodIjustdranksomeguysblood._  
  
Then came the heart pounding again, and his hand came up to cover his mouth but one of his fingers nicked one of the fangs that he was sure he didn’t have that morning and the whole situation came down on him like a piano from the sky and of all things he could’ve done to react to it,  
  
He did nothing.  
  
Keith just sat there, continued to stare and what else he’s still not sure.  
  
He’s still not sure if he’s waiting for someone to show up. Either some passerby or just some cops to come arrest him for this fucked up murder. Whatever he’s waiting for, it’s like he expects it to solve his problem because Keith doesn’t know what the fuck is happening. Doesn’t know why, what, who, when, how. He wants answers, he guesses. Wants someone to explain it all to him. Probably tell him it’s gonna be okay because right now it’s definitely not fucking okay and jesus what is he gonna do.  
  
Shiro would know what to do.  
  
Now why the fuck is his mind bringing Shiro up right now. He doesn’t want to think about him. Doesn’t want to think about his dead best friend. Doesn’t want to think about how easily Shiro would have a plan to solve this whole thing and be rational and get them both out of it so easily, like breathing air. He doesn’t want to think about it because now Keith’s got tears rolling down his cheeks and he feels three times worse than he did because not only has he just killed someone in the most fucked up manner possible, but he’s thinking about the only friend he ever had who promised would never leave him and how this whole thing probably would have never even happened if he was still here.  
  
So, fuck it, Keith cries. He lets those fat bastards roll down and mix with the blood smeared across his chin. Sobs into his hands because at least he’s smart enough not to make any noise to attract someone to show up any faster, and just cries. He’s probably needed this anyways. Needed to let it out. It’s been almost three years since Shiro disappeared. Three years since Keith got booted from school because of disciplinary issues after everyone started whispering about Shiro being dead. Three years since Keith had himself a chance to even think his name without complete resentment.  
  
Keith was an angry kid. Shiro used to be a weight that held him down well enough to seem approachable. So when Shiro left him, everything just went to shit again.  
He’s nearing the need to scream. Getting dangerously close to picking himself up and tearing the body in front of him limb from limb, draining some more blood and then ripping some more but there’s a noise off to his right. Something moves in the direction of the opening to the alley and Keith snaps his head up like a whip. His tears are gone and the anger’s clouding his vision again. Keith bars his teeth at the new person standing in front of him, goes to pull them down to his level, probably to drain them as well but before he even gets the chance there’s a hand touching his head and every ounce of energy built up in Keith’s body melts as fast as cotton candy on a hot tongue. He leans back onto his legs, sways to the side and drops onto the pavement.  
  
He blinks a few times, tries to clear his view to see who the hell this person is because they’re crouching in front of Keith and god his heart is pounding again when he gets a glimpse of the guy’s face. Keith reaches forward then blacks out.  


* * *

 

 

Keith wakes up with the worst headache. He feels a little confused and a little dazed. The area around him is coming in like a fuzzy picture on a TV screen. He has to blink a few times to clear it and once he does, nothing seems to still make any sense. The lights in the room are too bright. The noises, no matter how minimal, are too loud. But the worst of all are the smells. Some make him want to gag, others are driving his sense mad. There’s one specifically that’s getting him all riled up. It’s sweet and alluring and he feels the drool pooling in his mouth. He shifts a bit, turns his head onto his side and just briefly see’s movement closer towards his feet. It’s a weird mirage of movement after that though. He’s not sure what’s going on until he hears something hit the wall, someone scream and himself growl. The noise he makes himself shocks him the most. He’d recoil if he had control over himself. It’s kind of like looking at himself from above. He’s got his arm on some girl’s neck and he’s squeezing way too hard to be safe. His nails are digging into her skin, drawing blood. His nostrils flare and he feels his mouth open, another noise leaving from somewhere deep down his throat. The girl doesn’t look afraid though. She looks frustrated as she claws at him and mouths breathlessly like she’s trying to say something. He’s grabbed her just right, to keep the air from leaving and the words thin. He leans against her more, gets just close enough and sinks his teeth into her neck. She squeaks out a noise because it’s all she can manage and he takes one forceful pull, the taste of her blood swarming his tongue and he feels the fire burn through his veins.

  
But then there’s someone grabbing Keith around the chest and ripping him around in a circle before trying to knock him onto the floor. Keith catches his footing just well enough to grab back and switch their positions, slamming the guy down into the floor instead. Keith hisses again, grip this guy and revels in the fear washing off him in waves. He can still smell the girls blood but this guy, this guy smells too good. The fears wafting and mixing with the smell of his blood. They’re so close and he’s surprisingly weaker than the girl. Where he pushes at Keith’s chest is just enough to keep Keith from ripping at his throat but his arms are shaking and the guy’s squirming so much he’s gonna manage to slip his grip eventually and Keith will be able to get to his throat. He’s making frustrated little whimpers as he fight’s Keith. Tries to keep his mouth away from throat while swatting away where Keith’s hands keep trying to grab. He feels the guy’s hand slip off his chest just minutely and Keith’s just about to pin his arms and bite when there’s an explosion in his temples. It’s blinding and so overwhelming he recoils and curls into his own lap. He claws at his own head, whining and thrashing to try and get rid of the feeling.  
  
It feels like hours before the feeling turns into a calming relief that has Keith heaving air into his lungs and slumping onto the floor. His limbs feel like noodles and his eyes droop but his minds on full alert watching the two people still with him. The girl’s standing over the guy still laying on the floor, heaving like he’s thankful he’s still alive.  
  
_He should be_ , Keith thinks, _I would have killed him._  
  
“Idiot!” the girl screeches at this kid and pulls him onto his feet, “Lance why would you do that!”  
  
“That’s the thanks i get?” the Lance guy scoffs and rubs one of his shoulders, a slight wince in his expression, “He was attacking you.”  
  
“You could’ve gotten hurt!”  
  
“ _Could’ve_ , key word. Didn’t. But you did Jess!” So the girl’s name was Jess. Keith didn’t know either of them. Maybe he did, he couldn’t tell right now because everything in his head was just fuzzy, like the static on an old TV.  
  
The Jess girl waves him off and turns to face Keith, takes a step towards him before Lance is putting a hand on her shoulder. She looks at him again, this time the look in her eye is softer, her anger seems to have disappeared just like that. “He won’t hurt me anymore.” she says to him and Keith watches the guy’s fingers tighten around her shoulder. He squeezes for a moment, glances over at Keith, before letting her go.  
  
She makes her way to Keith, crouches by him and sits back on her legs. “Keith?” _She knows his name?_ “My name’s Jess. You don’t know me, but I know you.” _Yeah, clearly._ “This is all going to sound crazy but you’ve been turned into a vampire and the reason you can’t move right now is because I drained all your energy to keep you from hurting anyone again.” Keith blinks up at her because it’s all he can do. He swallows and tastes the blood still on his tongue. He doesn’t really feel much of a reaction growing behind his ribs yet. But his eyes catch the puncture wounds on her neck. “There’s a bunch of shit we’re gonna explain to you and most of it’s going to sound ridiculous but you’re gonna have to give us a chance, alright?” There’s still some blood dripping down in steady lines, soaking into the collar of her grey t-shirt. “I’m gonna put a little barrier up in your head, gonna build a wall around that annoying bloodlust you’ve got going on now.” Keith blinks at her again. _Vampire_ and _Bloodlust_ are the two words at the forefront of his mind right now. He can smell the blood from her wound. He can still taste it. Tangy like a lemon with a sweet aftertaste that makes him crave more.  
  
Keith licks his lips. The motion slower than he’s ever done before. He see’s her eyes bounce down to his lips, hover for a moment before she brings her eyes back up again.  
  
“They’re already really sharp.” Lance says from where he stands behind her, arms crossed over his chest. “I’m surprised he didn’t do more damage.”  
  
“Shut it, Lance.” she huffs and raises a hand, pressing three fingers to Keith’s temple, “It’s not gonna hurt but it’s gonna feel like the wind’s gradually being sucked out of your lungs.”  
  
Keith knows he should be trying to get away. Trying to fight back or do something but everything’s so limp. Nothing in his body is listening to him.  
  
So she presses her fingers to his temple and sure enough, when he shuts his eyes, there’s that vacuum sucking the air straight out his lungs. But it’s slow and agonizing in a way that doesn’t exactly hurt but it’s like trying to grab at running water. Any breath he takes seems to raise his chest but do nothing for his lungs. It’s thinning out and he scrunches his face and curls his fingers into fists. “Just a little more.” he hears her say somewhere over his head but he’s afraid he won’t last that long. The air is almost completely gone. He wants to scream or rip away from her fingers but he still can’t move and now he can’t breathe and “There.”  
  
Keith heaves.  
  
He rolls onto his side and breathes in so deep it burns his chest. His arms wrap around his waist and he feels the need to dig himself into the ground.  
  
“You’re not dying, relax.” Lance says the words. Keith glances at him through his lashes and he’s still standing with his arms crossed and one hip popped out to it’s side.  
  
“You alright?” Jess asks and she’s on her knees now, one hand gentle on the side of Keith’s arm.  
  
He groans. “No.”  
  
“Let’s sit you up.” Jess helps him into a sitting position, his knees folding up into his chest, “You good to stand?” Keith nods and she gets herself up first before offering a hand. He takes it and she pulls him up. Keith bites back a groan but curses his own legs for wobbling under him. He ends up pressed against her side, hand still clawing into hers as he tries to steady his knees. She holds him upright until he’s good to stand on his own.  
  
“Quit acting like such a baby.” Lance scoffs again and Keith barely just raises his eyes to snarl at him.  
  
“ _Lance._ ” Jess growls his name and the boy glares at her before turning on his heel.  
  
“Estaré en mi habitación. Si eso está bien _contigo_.” He doesn’t wait for an answer or a reaction from Keith before disappearing down the hallway next to the kitchen. Keith hears a door shut and then he steadies himself to look at the girl beside him. She’s mumbling under her breath and staring after Lance.  
  
“What’s his problem?” He asks and she sighs, bringing a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose.  
  
“He’s just in a pissy mood.”  
  
“No shit.”  
  
She looks up at him over her fingers and Keith shuts his mouth to clear his throat and look away. She rolls her eyes and lets her arms drop. “Up to you now, whether you want the whole explanation now or later.” She watches him for a moment, takes in his entire stance before meeting his eyes again, one brow perched.  
  
“Now.” Keith says. He needs to know what the hell is going on and who these people are.  
  
She nods once and beckons towards the couches again, “You should get comfortable, this is going to be a long and confusing ride.”

 

* * *

 

Jess wasn’t lying. The entire conversation had Keith rubbing his hands over his pants, scratching his head, and gaping at her like an idiot.  
  
She started off by telling him he’d been turned into a vampire.  
  
Keith scoffed and she looked at him with such a stern look the noise had faded into the black hole of confusion starting to form behind his eyes.  
  
The word was repeated one too many times for Keith to feel comfortable in his own skin. She did her best to explain the circumstances of it.  
  
Yes he needs to drink blood. The guy he’d drained in the alley was fine and in the hospital recovering quite well. It was also something Keith didn’t have to worry about because she had it handled. Most of the knowledge humans have about vampires, and the supernatural in general, is somewhat true. A few tweaks here or there but most of it ran along the same lines.  
Keith could still eat regular human food, he just didn’t need it to sustain himself. He needs to regularly drink blood to keep from going feral and also dying of hunger. He can go out in the sun without burning to death, it’s just going to seem brighter than before and he may burn a little easier. Once Keith learns, he’ll be able to control 1. his hunger for blood 2. his fangs (they’re retractable) 3. his strength (because that’s going to come in tonight and it’s going to be a bit over-whelming for the first little while but it’s the easiest thing to perfect out of the three)  
  
Keith does not have the ability to turn into a bat, nor can he fly or need to sleep in a coffin or upside down.  
  
He will get slightly faster but nothing freakishly inhuman.  
  
Jess herself is also a supernatural being. She isn’t a vampire but she’s something without an official name. She’s been called many things but it’s easiest to understand her powers by comparing them to that of a witch, except she doesn’t need spells to do any of her tricks. Many other monsters and fairy tails Keith grew up hearing about and watching on TV do exist and live among the humans like regular people. They’re not a huge percent. Maybe only 20% of the actual population, but they’re there.  
  
_“You’ve probably interacted with more of them than you think.”_ Jess had told him and Keith could only nod absently.  
  
There are two groups of supernaturals in their specific area; Jess’ and Zarkon’s.  
  
Jess cares for the supernaturals who’s main goal is to reintegrate themselves into regular life after they’ve been turned. And also help out the ones who were born the way they were into keeping low profiles.  
  
Keith compares her to a mafioso and she can’t help but laugh at it.  
  
Zarkon, on the other hand, commands a group of supernaturals, the galrans, who like to cause problems around the city and stir up fights with the Alteans.  
  
The Alteans, Jess had explained, are a group of supernatural hunters who take out any supernatural being that causes even the slightest problem around the city. The Alteans, are led by a woman named Allura and her advisor Coran. Allura had just recently taken over after her father had passed. Jess and Allura had made a general agreement to keep a truce between Jess’ supernaturals and Allura’s hunters. Jess would keep her pack under control and Allura’s hunters would turn a somewhat blind eye.  
  
Keith’s dumbfounded and only more so when Jess adds that The Alteans control not just their city but have stations all around the world to keep a track on the supernatural populations.  
Even with the truce, Jess had strongly suggested avoiding hunters as best he can. They wear a specific sigil (a triangle with the top facing downwards and a diamond cut into the middle of the bottom line) that marks them whenever they’re out patrolling in public. They dress like regular residents or police officers because although they’re known to the supernaturals, they aren’t known to humans. Both sides have agreed to keep supernatural types away from any sort of human eyes. The sigil is either tattooed on their skin or visible on some part of their clothing at all times.  
  
Then comes the part where Jess tries to explain how, exactly, she’d known Keith.

Jess fumbles with her hands and runs one of them through her hair. She takes a slow breath and Keith wonders why this, of all things, would have her nervous. But then she meets his eye and Keith feels his stomach dropping beneath the floor boards. “I’m an old friend of Shiro’s.”  
  
It’s the way she says it that has Keith’s shoulders pulling back and his hands curling into fists over his knees. He stares at her for a long moment. Breathes through his nose and replay’s the sentence over an over.  
  
_I’m_ she said. Not I was but _I am_.  
  
_It could have been a mistake._ It could have easily been a mistake but she’s not correcting herself nor does she look like she wants to. She knows what she said and she said it the way she wanted Keith to hear it. So he stares at her and has an acute sense of his fangs pushing against his lips and pulsing against his gums. The grip of his fists has a throbbing running up his arms and he forces himself to let them go, but he doesn’t dare look away from the girl.  
  
“We’ve been friends since we were kids.” _present-tense._ “He never knew about my abilities because i never wanted him to know so that he never got involved with the issues that come with having or knowing about this kind of stuff.” She’s being careful with her words. picking them wisely and that’s whats driving the fire through Keith’s veins. “Keith-“  
  
“He’s dead.” he finally says. There’s a part of him that thinks maybe _she’s just stupid enough to believe he’s still alive somewhere._ But that other half is more than sure that’s not it. She’s not the type. Too confident in her own knowledge to believe something as fleeting as that without solid proof. “You keep talking about him like he’s still-“ he sucks in through his teeth, “Shiro’s gone.”  
  
Jess scratches the side of her face, the way he’s noticed to be her tell when she’s feeling a bit uncomfortable, and looks at him with gentle eyes. Similar to the way she’d looked at Lance before, but not quite. “He was missing for months, Keith.” she continues to explain because she knows she doesn’t have to _say it_ for Keith to understand what she’s getting at but he’s already shaking his head and standing from his place of the couch.  
  
“There’s no way.” he can feel her eyes on him the entire time he paces from the couches to the wall where he’d pinned her short of maybe an hour ago. “He would have come back.”  
  
“He wanted to, Keith.” she answers his rushed mumbles and he whips around to glare at her.  
  
“How the fuck would you know?” the words are poison and shit, he’s the cobra, but none of it seems to sting her where Keith wishes it would. She folds her hands over her own lap and keeps watching with those soft eyes. It’s not pity. Keith wishes it was because it’d give him a valid reason to hate her but it’s not.  
  
“Because I’m the one who kept him from you.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Denial and Acceptance (after some pretty solid proof)

Now Keith can say he might be starting to hate her. There’s been silence for the past few seconds since she’s said what she did and Keith’s sure he’s burning holes into the ground under his socked feet. She stands then and he has to hold himself from attacking her again. He doesn’t have the uncontrollable bloodlust as an excuse anymore. If he hurts her it's of his own conscience now and if Shiro-  
  
Shiro’s _not_ alive. He can’t be.  
  
“What the fuck are you talking about?”  
  
“He wanted to come back to you, Keith. He really did but i wouldn’t let him.” she says and his eyes start to burn, it feels like the vacuums back and it’s sucking the air from his lungs again.  
  
“ _Why?_ ” he asks and thats not what he wanted to say. He was supposed to keep saying Shiro’s dead because he is dead because he would have come back if he wasn’t because he would have reached out to Keith in someway and not left him _alone_ again.  
  
He see’s the look in her eyes shatter; that wall she’d put up in the beginning to keep a straight face for him. Keith knows it’s because of how pathetic he’d sounded just now. They stare at each other for a moment. Keith feeling a thousand apologies come flooding in from her but waves them off like a fly by his ear. She tries to put the wall back up, “If i’d let him see you, you would have been dragged into all of this without needing to be and there was a huge chance you’d get hurt.”  
  
Keith scoffs and watches whatever bricks she’d manage to set up come crumbling back down.  
  
“Keith, he would have killed you.”  
  
“We can’t be talking about the same person.” he crosses his arms over his chest, puts up his own version of a barrier.  
  
“He’s different now Keith.” she takes the smallest step forward, a more insistent look in her eye, “The same way you are.”  
  
_Ah._  
  
Then it clicks.  
  
Keith digs his fingers into the skin under his sleeves. Tightens his folded arms. She keeps going.  
  
“Thats what happened Keith. He was taken by the galran’s, by _Zarkon’s_ people.” his fangs are throbbing again, “They kept him locked up for months. Tested and prodded and turned him into something i didn’t know was actually possible.” Keith feels his nails piercing through his own skin even through the thin material barrier. He’s wearing a grey shirt, the blood’s gonna show soon. “When he got free, he was just barely grasping to the human part of him. He nearly tore me apart when i found him. It took me and three of my best to hold him down and bring him back here.” Jess has fists by her own sides but she’s holding Keith’s gaze, unwilling to let him look away and try to brush off her words as excuses. “Keith it took me months to get him back to something remotely recognizable as the Shiro I used to know. Then the last two years to help him recognize himself and get a grip over the shit that was forced on him. He’s still having issues but most of it’s under a generally good lock and key.”  
  
Keith watches her eyes falter. They flick down to his arms where his death grip only ever gets harder with every word she lets through her lips before she’s staring at him again. He lets his arms go, “Then why didn’t you let him come see me now.” he asks to distract her from the few spots of blood on his shirt and pushes up the sleeves to cover the stains. She blinks but lets him change the topic.  
  
“I was thinking about it.” she straightens in her spot and Keith’s anger filters up again over the hurt.  
  
“You act like you can control his decisions.”  
  
Her fists tighten, “Watch what you assume.” she just barely hisses the words. He see’s the restraint in the white knuckles by her thighs, “Believe it or not I had you in mind.”  
  
“Really?” he keeps his arms crossed, pushes his weight onto one leg. Challenges her.  
  
“Yeah, really.” She accepts, crossing her own arms over her chest, “You think i haven’t been keeping an eye out for you these past three years?” Keith shifts his arms, “The second i found out Shiro had gone missing my first priority was making sure you were alright. I checked on you but kept my distance because i couldn’t have any of my kind on your ass for who knows what reason. I made sure you never lost your apartment. I made sure you were offered a job with decent enough pay to get you living on your own. I made sure your dumbass wasn’t arrested after your blow-up at the garrison.” her arms unfold and drop back down to her sides, shoulders slouching forward, “Keith i took care of you because Shiro never stopped talking about you whenever he came to see me or called me over the phone. He was so proud to have someone like you as a friend. And then when i found him and he came back to himself, his first concern was _you_.”  
  
Keith knows his entire composure has un-knotted itself. He feels loose. He feels- he doesn’t know what he feels, but his heart feels too heavy for his chest.  
  
“So yes, i was still thinking about it. Why? Because Shiro still has a hard time dealing with things that are emotionally overwhelming and you two don’t seem to be very rational when it comes to each other.” she growls the last part, not out of anger but exasperation. She runs a hand over her face and pinches the bridge of her nose, “I figured you could handle the whole supernatural thing. Be alright with keeping it a secret but Shiro was still the issue.” she sighs, “But then you got turned and well- we didn’t exactly have a choice, now did we?” she waves a hand and lets it drop again.  
  
Keith’s still letting all of it process. Still lost somewhere in the middle of the translation.  
  
“What is he?” he asks, blinking to try and help his clear some of the fog. Jess doesn’t seemed fazed at all by the choice of question or even the way it’s worded. She looks relieved that at least Keith’s giving all of it a chance.  
  
“Vampire-werewolf hybrid.” she says, “Lance prefers the term werepire.” she laughs to herself. A breathless chuckle, more of a sigh.  
  
Keith licks his lips, “And what is Lance?” he finally lets his arms unwind.  
  
Jess scratches the side of her face. Opens her mouth to answer but the noise that slices past Keith’s ears is someone’s scream. Jess and Keith both turn to look at the hallway to watch Lance backing in slowly, arms out in front of him, “ _Jess_.” leaving his lips the second he knows she’s in earshot. Jess is already out in front of Keith, making her way towards Lance when someone else joins them in the room.  
  
Keith makes a choked noise. It’s Shiro but not exactly. He’s got a white tuff of hair on his head, a scar over the bridge of his nose, _glowing purple eyes_ and a set of fangs much larger and much sharper than what Keith believes to be his own. He’s stalking into the room, eyes trained on Lance like he’s the only person there. Keith hears Shiro let a growl through his teeth and he feels his entire self paralyze in the spot where he stands a few feet away.  
  
“ _Jess_.” Lance repeats because he’s realized if he walks any closer into the room he’ll be leading Shiro right at Keith.  
  
Keith twitches when he watches Jess’ hand curl around Lance’s bicep to switch their spots. She pulls Lance back and shoves him hard enough to have him tumbling into Keith’s chest. Shiro lets out the most guttural, inhuman sound Keith’s ever heard and it has Keith snapping out of it enough to keep Lance from falling on his ass. Lance gets his feet under him but keeps his spot just in front of Keith, his back pressed against Keith’s chest.  
  
Jess has her hands out in front of her, keeping the distance from where Shiro’s drooling and glaring at her now, his eyes a deep, almost hypnotic violet.  
  
“Shut him down.” Lance says, his voice a little shaken. Keith see’s his shoulders rising and falling as if he’d just run a marathon but what’s even more distracting is how he can just make out a second heartbeat he knows isn’t his own, like a whisper in his ear. He wonders if it’s Lances.  
  
“No.” Jess says, her voice more firm, no visible shake in her words, “He can control it.”  
  
_Is she not seeing what’s in front of her?_  
  
“Shiro.” she tries and gets another snarl as an answer, “Shiro, control it.” she sounds so _calm._ “Keith’s fresh meat so i had to shut him down, but you? You don’t get that excuse, control it.”  
  
“Sh-“ Keith starts but stops as quick as he had when the violet eyes land on him and there’s another louder howl of a sound directed at him. Lance shoves them both back, gripping a fistful of Keith’s shirt in the process. Jess is waving her hands.  
  
“Hey!” she screams at Shiro, “Hey! Pay attention to me!” he rips his eyes back to her and flashes his fangs again, wider, and Keith watches a few more slide down over whatever human teeth had been left. He grips Lance back out of habit and to keep himself from making another noise. “I will not shut you down Shiro! You can control it so fucking do it!” she’s not screaming it, she’s _ordering_ him. Like a general yelling at his cadets.  
  
Keith can’t move. He can’t say anything or look anywhere other than Shiro who  
  
      doesn’t look like Shiro.  
  
That’s not his Shiro.  
  
“Control it! Don’t you dare disappoint me.” Jess takes a step back but not because Shiro makes a move, just enough to make it safe enough to turn herself to point over at Keith and Lance, “Don’t you dare disappoint _him_.”  
  
Keith sucks in a breath, catches those violet eyes again and feels his heart stop. There’s another growl, not as loud as the last but still there. Shiro leans forward, curling his spine as if he were ready to launch himself forward. Jess still has her arms out but Keith still can’t get himself to _breath._  
  
Jess still doesn’t block Shiro’s view and Keith’s just about to scream at her when Shiro groans and shuts his eyes. The noise is more human. An echo of the wolf part of him still there but it’s better. His hands come up to the sides of his head and he drops to his knees instead. Jess doesn’t make a move. Watches Shiro writhe into his own lap, groaning and pulling at his hairs.  
  
Keith feels an overwhelming need to _help_ so he moves forward but Lance still has a grip on his shirt. He pushes him back and keeps him still, throwing a glare over his shoulder that tells Keith _Not yet_ and Keith stupidly listens to the boy with angry blue eyes.  
  
The next few seconds seem to last forever but eventually Shiro let’s his head go and slowly picks himself back up to look at them. Jess is down on the floor, hands coming to the sides of his face just as he blinks open to meet her with gentle greys.  
  
“M’good.” he mumbles, “Sorry.”  
  
Keith’s got fists by his sides again. Feels his heart drumming in his ears because _thats his voice_.  
  
“Christ, Shiro.” he just barely hears Jess say as her hands drop from the man’s face. She looks back at them then, her eyes brushing over the way Lance is still holding Keith back and Keith stands with a huge question mark glowing over his head because _what the fuck is going on_. Lance lets him go finally, crosses his arms over his chest and Jess rolls her eyes back towards Shiro. His eyes are drooping and he sways a bit where he sits back on his legs, “Let’s go big guy.” she hushes and gets his arm around her shoulders to help him stand.  
  
Lance and Keith both go to help her with the guy almost twice her size and she just sticks out a free hand, “No. stay.” They both stop walking. “Lance, manténlo aquí.”  
  
“What-“  
  
“Cállate!” she hisses and Lance shuts his mouth to pout. Jess ignores it and fixes her hold on Shiro before leading him back down the hall. Lance curses something under his breath then turns to face Keith with his arms still folded over his chest.  
  
“Now I’m stuck babysitting the fresh meat.”  
  
“What the hell is your issue?” Keith asks, pushing his confusion aside for the moment.  
  
“You are.”  
  
“What have i ever done to you?” Keith’s fuming again, feeling the hot air leave his ears the more this guy stands there with his hip popped out to the right, arms crossed over his chest, and a scowl on his pink lips.  
  
“Other than attacking Jess and causing her more problems than she needs even when you were still human?” he bites, bright blue eyes scanning Keith up and down, “I hate your mullet too.”  
  
Keith growls, feels the air hit his fangs when his lips part to make the noise but Lance doesn’t falter. He scoffs again and turns on his heel. “Attack me if you want. See how well that’ll go over with either of them.” he walks towards the kitchen, hops up the two little steps to get to the platform its on and walks straight to the fridge. Keith glares at him the entire way. Watches the little sway in his hips and the tiny curl of the hairs reaching the back of his neck. Sees the contrast between his tan skin and the bright white baseball tee with blue sleeves.  
  
Keith hates all of it.  
  
He might hate it but Keith’s still confused about what happened and he doesn’t know when Jess might come back or what the hell is going on with Shiro right now. It doesn’t seem too serious because neither of them are freaking out or acting like it’s serious but Keith still needs to _know_.  
  
“Is no one going to explain what just happened?” Keith hisses in his direction as he searches through the fridge for something. Keith’s sure it’s just a reason to keep them both at a distance.  
  
“It was your fault.” Lance says like it’s no big deal.  
  
“What the fuck does that mean?” He hadn’t even seen Shiro before all of this. Lance grabs a bottle of water out of the fridge and turns to put it down on the counter.  
  
“You showed up. He overheard your entire conversation with Jess and well, it was too much.” Lance opens the bottle, brings it up to lips and meets Keith’s eyes, “You nearly sent him over the edge.” He takes a drink, chugs about a quarter of the bottle before putting it back down on the counter, wiping the side of his mouth where some water had slipped free. Keith continues to stare at him, even after he doesn’t continue his explanation. Even after Lance throws him a few more daggers and circles the counter to sit on one of the black bar stools behind it to turn his back to Keith.  
  
Keith himself walks back to the couches, drops into his previous spot, and sulks.  
  
He can’t tell if what’s Lance is saying is true or just him saying it to get a rise out of him. He can’t argue because Keith doesn’t know anything. All of this is new to him. A few hours ago he was sure this stuff was all fairy tails and ghost stories, not real life. A few hours ago Keith was human. A few hours ago Keith had been sure Shiro had died a human. A few hours ago Keith was sure Shiro had been _dead_.  
  
Now he’s sitting here, a vampire, who’d just watched his only best friend nearly turn into a werepire in front of him and it might have been his fault for triggering it.  
  
_What in the fuck?_  
  
It’s a solid ten minutes before Jess finally comes back into the room, looking even more exhausted than she did before. Her eyes land on Keith sitting on the couch with his arms folded looking like a kicked puppy before dragging over to where Lance still sits with his back towards him.  
  
“Shiro’s alright, Keith.” Jess starts and watches his shoulders pull back, “He just gets really drained when he brings himself back from turning.” She runs a hand over her face and sighs. Keith finally looks to her and watches her sit on the arm of the couch close to Keith. “He’s sleeping now. He’ll be fine in the morning, so you two can finally talk then, alright?” Keith nods and she tries her best to flash a smile in his direction.  
  
Lance saunters over, places himself in the corner of her view and pops his hip out again, arms crossed, “Can I leave now?” he says but theres a moment, Keith notices, when Lance’s face slips and his shoulders drop as soon as he really see’s the look on Jess’ face. She doesn’t react to his attitude anymore, just shrugs and says _Do what you want_ before digging the heels of her palms into her eyes.  
  
Lance hesitates. Glances between the two of them and opens his mouth to say something but Jess stops him again.  
  
“Lance, please. I- I’m tired.” she looks at him and his arms drop to his sides.  
  
He shifts, mumbles a quick _sorry_ under his breath before slipping back down the hallway to what Keith can only guess to be his room. He waits in the silence, gives Jess a few seconds to breath before asking the question gnawing at him.  
  
“Was it really my fault?”  
  
Jess blinks at him, slow and a little glazed but still there, “No.” she licks her lips, “It wasn’t just you, Keith.”  
  
“So i was part of it?” his hands curl into fists again. She shakes her head, loose strands swaying with the motion.  
  
“Keith, it was the whole situation. It was overwhelming. He was ecstatic he could see you again but at the same time he was angry that someone had turned you and that we couldn’t avoid it. He didn’t want this life for you.” she rubs her hands over her pants and straightens her back until a few pops echo from her spine, “He’s still got a hard time controlling himself when it comes to his emotions. You’re a big part of his life Keith, it’s only normal he’d react like this.”  
  
“But it’s not normal! none of this is.” he snaps and feels bad having to do this with her now but he can’t help it.  
  
“Keith.” she says and the single word seems to calm him down like some kind of vocal sedative. He breathes through his nose and forces himself to take a step back from the situation, “I wish i could make this entire thing easier for you. I really do. I wish i could make this shit simple and not as ridiculous as it is. For fucks sake i wish i didn’t have to be explaining this to you in these circumstances but fate’s funny like that so we’re here and sweetheart, we all gotta deal with it. We’ve gotta just accept that this is how shit is now and we’ve gotta make it work. So yeah, it’s not normal and it’s never going to really _be_ normal but the only way you make it easier for yourself is to just try and go with it.” she chews the inside of her lip, looking at him, eyes scanning over his entire face before continuing, “It’s not going to be easy and most of it isn’t going to be fun for anyone but you’re not alone, Keith.”  
  
He looks at her and she smiles at him, soft and small, just a ghost of what should really be there but her energy’s fading and Keith can nearly see it leaving like smoke.  
  
“Me and Shiro are here for you. We’re gonna be here through all of it and we’re all gonna do our best to make this as smooth as possible but we’re gonna need your help doing that, alright?”  
  
Keith keeps staring at her.  
  
He nods, though, but keeps staring and he’s sure she doesn’t understand why or maybe she understands perfectly because she stands from the couch and motions for him to follow her, “Let’s get you into bed, ok? We can save the rest for tomorrow. You need some sleep.”  
  
Keith follows her like a lost puppy from then on. Is a few steps behind her all the way from the couches, down the hall, when she shows him the washroom (the first door on the left) and leads him into the room she’s deemed as his (the second on the right - the first being a storage closet big enough for Keith to really call another bedroom.). Keith hovers behind her as she explains the circumstances.  
  
“This was Shiro’s old room, from way back when, so I managed to find a few spare clothes that you could use until we get you properly settled. The clothes you’re wearing now are clean so it’s up to you if you’re cool with wearing them to bed.”  
  
He realizes, then, that he hasn’t been wearing what he put on that morning. The scene of him drenched in someone else’s blood in some sketchy ass alley flashes through his mind when he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror by the dresser in the room. Grey shirt and a pair of darker grey sweats. They fit him pretty well. They’re probably Jess’ he thinks, not really convinced Lance would give up a pair of his own. “You’ve got free reign, alright? If you want something from the kitchen or anything at all, you can grab it yourself or since you still don’t know you’re way around, don’t be afraid to give me a holler. I’m just down the hall and Lance is in the room next to you.” Jess rubs at her eyes. “I feel like there was something else i needed to tell you.”  
  
Keith busies himself with taking in the room, with its warm grey walls, fluffy white covers and black pillows, white furniture and grey rug by the bed tucked into the corner of the room. Its cozy and colour-coated. Shiro may have had a say in the colour scheme but not in the actual outcome of the design. He would never have been able to pull this off without help. Keith notices the few pops of quiet violet designs mixed into the room and he smiles knowing those were definitely all Shiro.  
  
“I can’t remember, fuck.” Jess mumbles and brings Keith’s attention back to her.  
  
“Where’s Shiro staying?” he asks and she shrugs.  
  
“He’s been staying in my room for a while now.” she sighs, “Helps him sleep.” Keith can tell there’s more to it. See’s that little glimmer in the corner of her eyes and the sudden peppering of pink over her cheeks. He nods and chooses not to question. Doesn’t feel like he has the right to pry just yet, and settles with thanking her for the hospitality. Jess smiles at him, a genuine spread on her lips.  
  
“It’s no problem, Keith. I’m glad you’re finally here.” she says and Keith clears his throat to look away. “Well, I’ll let you go then.” she starts on her way back out the bedroom door, “Like I said before, you need anything, just holler and I’m here.” Keith nods, knowing full well he’s probably not going to be asking for anything but it satisfies her. She flashes him another smile, “Goodnight, Keith.”  
  
“Night.”  
  
Then she shuts the door behind her and Keith’s finally left alone. He faces the bed, runs his fingers over the covers before finally sitting himself down on the duvet. It sinks under his weight and his eyes glide over the walls.  
  
He figures he’s not really going to get any sleep tonight. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave me some comments my dudes! How am i doing?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reunion

Keith was wrong about as much.   
  
He shuts off the lights at some point, something about them starting to bother his eyes. Then he slips under the covers and finds the most comfortable position he’s ever had in his entire life and soon enough, he KO’s. Keith knows he probably shouldn’t have. On the one hand he does need the rest, but on the other, Keith knows his own head better than anyone else. He knows what to expect when he shuts his eyes. When he gives in to the confines of the small space. Gives his head full reign over what he see’s, hears and feels.  
  
So Keith’s not exactly surprised when he dreams. Isn’t surprised when that familiar twist in his gut tells him you should’ve stayed awake. Isn’t even surprised when the dream he has is about Shiro.  
  
It feels like a memory. It’s the first time he’d met Shiro, something that would pop into his mind every once in awhile during these last three years.  
  
He knows the memory like the back of his hand. Has it memorized down to the grime under his fingernails and the folds in the pages of the textbook he’d been reading when Shiro and him first shared a few words. Well when Shiro spoke to Keith and Keith gaped at him like he didn’t understand english.  
  
Keith was studying. Well, trying to anyways. He’d found himself a picnic table under one of the big trees out before the Garrison University doors, thinking maybe the fresh air would help him focus but really it only helped his mind wander. He’d been reading the same sentence over and over and over again. _The fundamental operational unit’s of the brain’s information processing functionality are called neurons._ He couldn’t focus. It’s not that it was too loud, but more so it was such a nice day he didn’t want to study. His brain had had enough of it. So instead of absorbing any of the information of the fundamentals of the brain, he was absorbing the fundamentals of the frisbee game happening across the terrace.  
  
“Yeah, I could never get myself to pay attention to Introductory Physics either.” then there was this new voice spooking him out of his own skin from the left. Keith turned to meet a pair of grey eyes leaning on the tree beside him. The guy stood with his arms crossed over his chest, muscles testing the fabrics of his black university hoodie, Garrison written in gold cursive on the front. He smiled at Keith, who was undoubtably wearing his usual scowl, and stuck a hand out, “My name’s Shiro. Mind if i join you?” Keith stared at his hand, looked back at him and took it in his own. Shiro gave him a firm shake and took that as an invitation to sit. “I know this seems kind of out of the blue, but you’re actually in one of my classes.” he’d said and slung the bag that he apparently had over his right shoulder onto the bench beside him, “You’re a first year and already top of most of your classes.”  
  
“You’re not?” Keith had asked and only when Shiro had laughed did he realize that his question had sounded rude. “Sorry, i meant you’re not a first year?” Keith mumbled and Shiro only laughed again, shaking his head.  
  
“No, I’m a fourth year, and believe it or not, I am actually top of my classes too.” He’d winked at him and Keith had blushed, dropping his eyes to the textbook on the table. A moment of silence had passed and then Shiro had spoken again, “You’re Keith, right?” and Keith had looked up at him again, brows lowered, making the older boy laugh again, “Sometimes you wonder who’s beating you in a first year course so you do your research.”  
  
“Ah, sorry.” Keith had said and brushed his bangs out of his eyes, feeling them fall right back into place. Shiro grinned at him.  
  
“You should be.”  
  
_Thats not right. That’s not what he’d said.  
_  
“You’re the reason the whole school’s laughing at me.” Shiro leaned closer onto his arms, “You’re making me out to be a dumbass and i can’t stand you.” The grin was still on his lips and it was making Keith’s heart pound.  
  
_This is definitely not how it went._  
  
Keith’s chest felt too small for his organs.  
  
“I’m not here to be your friend. I never really was your friend.”  
  
His hands were shaking now and he couldn’t look away from Shiro’s grin.  
  
“I never wanted to be. I just wanted to get close to you to see what the hell you were doing to get your marks, but then you got attached.” Shiro leans back in his seat and runs a hand through his all black hair, but as he threads his fingers through it, the colours change into what they are now. “Ah, I couldn’t just leave. I felt bad, you were so pathetic.”  
  
Keith knows this isn’t what happened but he still can’t get his heart to stop pounding in his ears.  
  
“Especially when i found out you really didn’t have any other friends. All my friends thought you were a loser and kept telling me to just drop you, but i decided to stay cause you were kind of useful. Not much, but when the profs had found out i was hanging around you, boy did they praise me.” Shiro scoffs, “You were like a lost little puppy. All you did was listen to what i told you to do. The entire school was practically bowing at my feet because i’d gotten the smart kid with a too smart mouth to finally shut up and be a good, obedient little student.”  
  
Keith wants to rip his eyes away, wants to stand up and leave or even cuss him out but he can’t control anything. He can’t get himself to move or say anything. He’s just sitting there, staring like the idiot he is.  
  
“Sure, you’re smart, I can’t deny that. But, honestly Keith, who the hell do you think is ever going to want you?”  
  
_It’s not Shiro. It’s not Shiro. It’s not Shiro._  
  
“You’re so angry. All you ever do is scare people off and you only think of yourself.”  
  
_Shut up._  
  
“Who’d want to hire you? Work around or with you? You don’t listen to anyone and you think you’re better than everyone else.”  
  
_Shut up!  
_  
“I never wanted to be your friend and god was it hard acting like it. But after actually seeing what you were like, no wonder you were always alone.”  
  
Keith can physically feel his heart snapping in half. Someone has their hands pressed over his lungs and they aren’t letting him breathe.  
  
Shiro stands from his seat on the bench, swings his bag over his shoulder and looks at Keith, “You don’t understand how happy i was to be finally rid of you.”  
  
Keith’s eyes are burning.  
  
“I might have been tortured for those few months but _Jesus_ , was it better than being around _you_.”  
  
Keith still can’t look away.  
  
“And now you’re just going to leech onto me again and the people i actually care about are going to have to pretend they’re okay with it too.” Shiro shakes his head, “I didn’t come back during these past three years for a reason Keith, and yet, here you are again. Christ, can’t you just take the hint and leave me alone?” Shiro turns on his heel, starts to walk down the grass back towards the steps before the university doors. Keith stares at his back, tears burning down his cheeks the entire way.  
  
He wants to wake up.  
  
“Nobody wants you Keith.”  
  
He knows that. He knows but he doesn’t want to hear it from _him._  
  
“Get that through your head. Stop being so selfish.” Then Shiro’s gone and Keith’s left there on the bench shaking until his entire body is crying out for some kind of mercy because holy _fuck_ does everything _hurt_.  
  
Keith eventually wakes up. He’s sobbing and screaming when he does, tearing at the sheets through his blurred vision.  
  
Keith’s not expecting the hands coming to press him back down to the sheets, forgets Jess even exists for the moment and screams louder when his head presses back into the pillows. He’s in so much pain. Everything aches and throbs and just hurts. He wants to rip off his own goddamn skin. Keith keeps trying to squirm away from the pain but Jess is pining him to the bed, not letting him get away from it.  
  
He still hasn’t opened his eyes. Refuses to just in case he’s still in front of that godforsaken university. Just in case Shiro’s still standing there. And it feels like years go by before he finally does peel them back.  
  
“Keith, you’re okay.” he can finally hear her voice filtering through the pounding in his ears, “You’re safe, honey, you’re safe. You’re okay.” She lets go of where she’d been holding him down and moves her hands to his face, “It was just a dream, sweets, you’re okay.” she brushes through his bangs and his hands come to grip around her wrists, tears slipping through his eyes even after he screws them shut again.  
  
“Shiro hates me.” he pulls her hands away, turns onto his side and presses his face into the pillows, “Nobody wants me.”  
  
“Keith.” She reaches for him and he just pulls himself closer into the corner.  
  
“Stop it!” he tries to scream again but his voice is too hoarse, “Stop pretending.” he begs and for a few moments its silent. For a few moments he’s expecting to hear the bedroom door shut behind her on her way out and he’ll be lucky enough to sulk in his own pain but Keith’s not lucky.  
  
He feels the bed dip somewhere closer to the edge. He tucks his arms around him even tighter, hopes he might suffocate himself before having to interact again.  
  
“Keith, i don’t pretend.” she says and he feels her shift, “If i didn’t like you, if i didn’t give a shit about you, you’d know.” Keith tries to block her voice out. “I don’t have the energy to lie about something like that.” He hears her sigh, guesses she’s probably running a hand over her face or scratching the side of it, “And Shiro doesn’t hate you.”  
  
“You don’t know that.” he lets himself answer.  
  
“I do know that, Keith. I do know because if he hated you he wouldn’t have spent the last two and a half years watching you like a hawk and begging me to see you.” she shifts again and he feels her knee brush against his back, “For fucks sake Keith, you’re family. He loves you so much it caused him physical pain. Don’t you get it? He cares about you so much he was willing to ignore the part he hated about himself to find you and see you again.” she tries to put a hand on his shoulder again, it’s hesitant, especially when he tenses but Keith doesn’t pull away this time, “Keith he cares so much. You’re his best friend, the best he’s ever had and he missed you terribly. You have to know that.”  
  
“I- I don’t know.” Her thumb rubs circles into the muscle there and he feels the tension in that spot start to melt away while the rest of him fights to keep him on guard.  
  
“Ask anyone, they’ll tell you the same thing.”  
  
“They’re lying.”  
  
“Keith, really think about what you’re saying.” she squeezes his shoulder, “Honestly, think about everything you two have been through. Every moment you two shared. If he was lying about it, if he hated you throughout it, you’d be able to tell. You would be able to see it and sense that there was something wrong.”  
  
Keith finds himself doing exactly that. Filtering through his memories of Shiro, the same way he had been over the past three years and ever through the anger and tears and the handful of times they’d been at each others throats, Keith had always felt content. With most people there’d been that doubt hanging over every one of the words shared but with Shiro, it’d barely taken any time to really get himself comfortable around him. For some reason, Shiro had always been Keith’s rock. Keith’s stabilizer and the only person who could get him thinking rationally even through the thickest haze of anger. And Keith had always been who Shiro came to for advice. Keith barely ever engaged with him at the beginning, never tried very hard to slot himself into Shiro’s life and it was mostly because Shiro was the one making the effort. He always came to sit with Keith at lunch or whenever he’d seen him in the library. Shiro stopped Keith in the halls whenever they’d passed, even if he was engaged in a conversation with his own friends. Shiro was the one who called Keith and invited him out or asked if they could study together and for the longest while it only ever shocked Keith. He never understood why Shiro chose to waste his time around someone like Keith who only ever had two moods; confused or angry. He never grasped why someone as lively and outgoing and loved like Shiro would have chosen to hang around an outsider like Keith. But after a few months of Shiro being the one to engage, Keith had given it a shot and joined him at his table in the library, hovered by the chair across from him for a moment before clearing his throat to grab his attention and Shiro all but raised a brow and asked, “What are you still standing for?” before grinning and watching Keith sit. Then the rest of their time was spent so casually, Keith had a hard time keeping up because his mind was still stuck on the fact that Shiro had just expected him to sit down.  
  
Maybe he couldn’t have hated him.  
  
“You still with me?” Jess asks and Keith blinks himself back to reality. Finds that his shoulders had slumped forward and his grip around himself had unravelled. He dares a glance over his shoulder, peaks at her from under his bangs and she flashes him a small, knowing smile, “See?” Keith turns back to face the wall and lets a breath out. “You gotta give yourself more credit, sweetheart.” her fingers squeeze around his shoulder again, “You’re not as bad as your own head wants you to think.” Then her hand slips back into her own lap and Keith lets the words filter in his head. She stretches somewhere behind him, lets a groan slip through her teeth and says, “Now, I’m gonna stay here because what i forgot to tell you before was that freshies are prone to nightmares on their first night and seeing as you’re one of those lucky little vamps, I’m gonna stick around so that you’re not alone again.”  
  
“Ok.” What Keith means is _please, you don’t have to, you should be getting some sleep yourself, and not wasting your night babysitting me._ But those words never leave his lips. He keeps his back to her and listens to the way she shifts on the bed to press her own back against the headboard and stretch her legs forward. She’s close enough for Keith to feel the heat from her body seeping into his back. He decides then she’s not really a person with a sense of personal space but Keith’s weirdly alright with it. She reminds him of Shiro, in some way. He can’t really pin it. But if Shiro trusts her than Keith guesses he can too.  
  
So they lay there in silence, the bedside lamp the only source of light in the room because the curtains on the window are still pulled shut. Keith listens to her breath, finds it easy to locate the beating of her heart and focuses on it’s steady rhythm. It’s calmer than his own. And even though the concept of him being able to hear it without being pressed to her chest is weird to him, the noise helps him keep calm. Soon enough his eyes fall shut again. Soon enough he doesn’t feel too scared to fall asleep. Soon enough he shifts and presses himself against her to reassure his head she’s still there just in case anything goes wrong.  
  
Soon enough, Keith lets himself try sleeping again.

  
~~~~~~

Lance wakes up in the morning feeling like complete ass. It’s the worst sleep he’s had in weeks and its all because he knows how big of a douchebag he had been to Jess last night. His neck is stiff and he doesn’t think he stopped shifting at any point during the night.  
  
He’s gonna apologize.  
  
Lance pulls himself out of bed, fixes the covers, brushes his hair in the full-length mirror, washes up in the washroom across the hall and walks himself to the kitchen ready for a heart-felt conversation only to find the kitchen still cold. He blinks a few times, fixes his gaze on where Shiro sits perched over a mug of coffee as he stares at something outside the window and makes his way in his direction.  
  
“Where’s Jess?” he asks and Shiro startles in his seat. He stares at Lance with wide eyes for a few moments before he finally registers who he is.  
  
“Oh,” he looks back over to the window for a moment, then back to Lance. “I think she’s still with Keith.” Lance can’t see anything out in the trees that could have Shiro’s interest so strongly but then he remembers how Shiro is in the mornings after, sometimes. A little dazed and still a little lost so Lance just forces a smile and decides to sit with him.  
  
“She was with Keith?”  
  
Shiro nods, “Woke up in the middle of the night because he was having a nightmare.” he says so casually and Lance wonders whether Shiro understands who they’re actually talking about. “You hungry?” he asks and Lance shakes his head. Shiro starts drumming his fingers against the table, the metal making a sharper noise against the wood than human fingers would and Lance figures he’s slowly coming back to himself.  
  
“Good coffee?” Lance asks, because the silence is starting to drive him mad. Shiro blinks at him, smiles and shrugs again.  
  
“Not as good as yours.”  
  
Lance smiles back, stands from his seat, “I’ll make a pot, then.” and shuffles over behind the counter to do something to keep himself busy. He’s never been a fan of watching Shiro in this state. It makes him uncomfortable. Shiro doesn’t look like himself. He can’t imagine what Jess had felt when she first saw Shiro after those few months. Lance’s hands slow. He wonders how Keith feels right now, seeing Shiro after _three whole years_. A shiver runs up his spine. He’s knocked back into reality when he hits the pot against the coffee machine. He blinks and refocuses. Shiro stands from his seat at one point, mumbles something under his breath and stares at Lance. There’s more emotion in the grey of his eyes. A slight fear mixed with a form of excitement.  
  
His brows are pinched together.  
  
“Shiro?” Lance asks and for a moment all they can hear is the whirr of the coffee. Shiro breaks his gaze, looks over to the opening of the hallway and Lance follows suite. Jess stands there with Keith, one hand on his shoulder, a tight smile on her lips that Lance reads is there because she’s still a little unsure of how Shiro’s going to take to the whole thing. But Shiro doesn’t disappoint. He walks forward, steps down from the platform and waits an arms length away.  
  
“It’s been awhile.” Shiro says, his voice only loud enough because no one else dares to say anything. Lance see’s Jess’ fingers squeeze around Keith’s shoulder. Watches Keith suck in a breath and nod. “Sorry it took so long.”  
  
Jess gives Keith the smallest push, but it catapults him right into Shiro’s chest. Shiro’s arms come around Keith’s shoulders not even a second later. He laughs. Keith digs his fingers into Shiro’s back, gripping two handfuls of his shirt. “I missed you too, Keith.” he says and Lance chews on his bottom lip, feels his heart pound against his ribs, feels the air thin out when Shiro looks up at Jess, mouths a thank you only to shut his eyes and drop his chin back on Keith’s head.  
  
Jess walks up and behind the counter. Lance feels the need to drop his eyes to the marble and tangle his fingers together.  
  
“You okay?” she asks, leaning her hip against the counter to face him. Lance nods, tries to smile but she perks a brow, arms crossed over her chest. He bites his lip.  
  
“Sorry about yesterday.” he lowers his head again and she purses her lips, “I was a dick, i know. I’m sorry.”  
  
She hums and shakes her head, uses a hand to bring his head down enough to plant a kiss to his temple before pinching his ear between two fingers. He winces and whines. “Don’t do it again, because next time I’ll beat your ass.” and she lets him go in time for them to see Shiro and Keith pull away. Shiro’s smiling down at him, saying something they can’t really make out while Keith stares up at him with a few tears streaming down his cheeks. Keith wipes at them with the back of his hand, he chuckles and nods before Shiro finally lets him go. Lance hasn’t seen Shiro smile that bright before. He doesn’t really know how to react when he finally faces them and leads Keith over to the stools on the other side of the counter. Doesn’t even know what to say because Keith doesn’t even spare him more than a seconds glance and Lance knows it’s his own fault, but he still finds it a little rude.  
  
“So breakfast.” Jess says as she clasps her hands together, “Pancakes or waffles?”  
  
Keith shifts in his spot, rubs the side of his arm and asks, “I can still eat that stuff, right?”  
  
They all can’t help but laugh. He’s got these big puppy dog eyes and a pout on his lips that even with the fangs peaking through looks stupidly cute. Lance clears his throat and looks over at the coffee machine when Keith catches him staring and knits his brows together. He turns his back to Keith again and doesn’t turn back until he feels the heat rushing back away from his face. Lance pulls a fresh mug out for himself and for Shiro before pouring the new batch of coffee. He doesn’t offer Keith any because Jess is already crouching in front of the mini fridge, pulling out the blood bag that’s undoubtably for the guy.  
  
“Here.” she says as she hands Keith the bag, “This is what you’re gonna be drinking.”  
  
He turns it in his hands, curls his nose and looks back up at her, “A blood bag?”  
  
“Yup.”  
  
“Do i even want to know where you get these?” he asks and she laughs.  
  
“I have my connections,” she motions at the bag, “Drink, or else you’re gonna get all feral again.” Keith winces but Jess doesn’t see it with her back turned to him. She rushes Lance out from behind the counter and gets to work on the batter for what Lance can already tell to be pancakes. He decides it best to sit at the dining table rather than to pull up a stool because Shiro’s teaching Keith how to properly drink from the bag and Lance doesn’t want to be a bother. He still needs to apologize for being a major douchebag last night but right now isn’t the best time. So lance fingers at the little pile of magazines in the middle of the table and settles on some celebrity one to keep him busy for the time being. Jess turns the radio on to fill the area with a bit of music and Lance scoffs at her when Jack Johnson’s Banana Pancakes starts to play. Jess throws him a wink from where she mixes the batter and he chuckles before focusing back on his magazine.

  
~~~~

  
Even once Jess has the pancakes done and sends them all to sit around the dining table to eat, Lance finds it hard to add himself into the conversation. Keith’s nervous and just as quiet but it’s more reasonable for him. He’s still getting used to the whole thing. Still adjusting to being around shiro again and interacting with the likes of Jess and the guy who’d made his first impression out to be the biggest asshole of life. Lance still cracks a few jokes, gets a laugh out of Jess and Shiro but only manages the smallest smile out of Keith who’s still stiff anytime lance directs something at him. And when Keith shuts him down, Lance feels an uncomfortable force squeeze around his throat so he brushes it off and busies himself with another forkful.  
  
They finish and Shiro excuses the both of them, says something about showing Keith around and maybe even getting an early start on teaching him how to control his new add-ons, which Jess nearly chokes over because “No, Shiro, i have to be there.” and Shiro laughs and agrees before leading Keith off to the front door to start their tour from the porch Keith missed on his way in while passed out.  
  
Lance sits behind his plate, dragging the tip of his fork through some syrup before Jess’ voice spooks him from behind.  
  
“He’ll warm up to you, Lance.” she says and he hates how easily she can read him sometimes. “He’s on the defence right now because you two didn’t exactly start off on the right foot.”  
  
“I’m going to apologize!” he groans, letting the fork drop so he can hide his face in his hands, “But I’ve been trying and he just-“  
  
“Lance.” she says as she starts to collect the plates, “You can’t just expect him to get along with you after the way you acted yesterday. You and your pissy attitude, if i was him i’d have tore you a new one.”  
  
“Càllate!” he moans and she clicks her tongue.  
  
“Guapo, just give it some time. Suck it up, apologize and then be patient. Keith’s a pretty closed off kid.”  
  
“He’s fine with you.” Lance whines and drops his head onto his arms on the table, his face angled to where she stands behind the counter again, rolling her sleeves up to wash the dishes.  
“Well that’s because I’m just amazing with people.” she lets the water run, starts off by rinsing the plates before scrubbing with soap, “I got lucky, Lance. I’m just someone who has answers and was there when he didn’t want to be alone. He was kind of forced to let himself open up to me because he didn’t have any other options.”  
  
Lance sighs, drags his eyes over to the front door and taps his fingers against the table, “Shiro’s in a good mood.” he says after some time. She’s already got the dishes washed and drying. Jess wipes her hands on the hand towels hanging from the handle on the oven. She hums, a smile playing at her lips.  
  
“He is, isn’t he?” she leans against the counter and Lance straightens.  
  
“You still look a little dudoso.” she looks at him, eyes a little sad.  
  
“I just-“ she bites her lip and looks to the front door again, “He’s so happy, Lance.”  
  
“I know.” Lance says and still wonders what could still be keeping her on edge.  
  
“I want him to be happy.”  
  
Oh. He thinks. Keith’s a vampire now. Lance gets up from his seat, the sound of his chair dragging across the tile echoing between them. Her eyes find him again as he steps up to the counter, “We’ll be alright.” he says, “We always are.”  
  
Jess chews her lip. Nods once and lets some air out before running a hand through her hair. “Yeah.” she agrees, “Yeah, you’re right.”

  
~~~~

 

Keith follows Shiro wherever he leads him. All he can do is smile and nod at whatever the older man says because Keith’s just in a good mood. They started on the front porch of the house which Keith had soon realized was way bigger than he previously thought. The house has a two-door garage to the right of a big front porch with a few couches pressed to the wall facing out into the long driveway. Keith can just barely see the gates that lead to her house, or mansion he’d rather say even if Shiro insists it’s really not. The house only has one level with an attic that Jess uses to store all her old books and belongings from when she was a kid. The driveway has a roundabout in front of the house that stretches into a long path out towards the gates, currently closed, that separate them from the road. There are tall trees on either side of the driveway that seem to spread out around the house like a natural fence.  
  
Shiro walks them down to the side of the house where they follow the trees out to the backyard which is more of a mini field bordered by a forest of greenery. There’s a patio set up just outside the sliding back doors and a little stone path that leads to what Shiro confirms to be a pool house. The walls of said pool house are made almost entirely out of windows and even from where they walk on the stone Keith can see just how blue the water is. Shiro opens the door to let Keith have a look and he’s flooded by the smell of chlorine and the warm air that wraps around him like a blanket. They circle the pool, Shiro going on about how he’d been pretty against her adding this second building up until she’d actually added it and he could do nothing but spend hours in here soaking until he was basically a walking raisin. Keith laughs imagining it. They leave and Shiro makes them circle around the field, talking about how much time he’d spent out in the field when he got back, Jess keeping them both out here until they could barely keep their eyes open because she wouldn’t let up on Shiro’s lessons.  
  
“Lessons?” Keith asks when Shiro slows around the little garden off in the far right corner.  
  
“Teaching me to control everything.” Shiro stretches his arms over his head and Keith drags a finger over one of the taller plants, “She was pretty dedicated.” he sighs as he lets his arms back down and meets Keith’s eye. Keith sways on his feet, nervousness crawling up his spine. Shiro did this a lot when they were back at school. Whenever he knew Keith wanted to ask about something but wasn’t sure whether it was alright, Shiro would lead him onto the topic and ease him into asking. Keith started picking up on how he’d do it deliberately, and even though it was a non-verbal yes you can ask from Shiro, Keith would still feel antsy prying.  
  
“I was pretty mad with you these past three years, Shiro.” Keith decides to say and Shiro nods in his direction. He’s facing him, giving Keith his full attention because he knows how much he needs it right now, “I-I was lost without you.” Keith rubs the side of his arm before curling both hands into fists, “I thought you’d left me, even after you promised me you wouldn’t and i was- I was so mad.” _So hurt_. “But then people at school started talking about how you were probably dead and weren’t ever coming back and i just-“ Keith breathes through his teeth, “I dropped out and-“ He can’t find the words.  
  
“Jess told me.” Shiro says and when Keith looks up at him, he isn’t angry or disappointed. He’s got that patient and understanding look in his eye that soothes the fire in Keith’s veins.  
  
“I-“ Keith starts and his throat swells. He drops his gaze and lets his hands fall limp, “I believed you were dead, Shiro.”  
  
_I gave up on you, even after everything, i gave up on you._  
  
Keith wants to cry again. Feels like the worst person on this entire green earth because he couldn’t hold onto even the smallest piece of hope because it hurt more than he could handle and giving up on the person who’d never given up on him was apparently the easier option. He feels sick knowing he chose that instead. Hates himself for not just holding out but there was nothing left to hold onto. Nothing but fading memories and empty leads.  
  
Shiro puts a hand on his shoulder, forces Keith eyes back up to his and he fucking smiles at him, “It’s alright, Keith.” he says, his human fingers squeezing. “I’m not mad.” he shakes his head and sighs, “I’m just happy i get to see you again.”  
  
“I am too.” Keith agrees, even if his voice shakes, and Shiro smiles a little brighter. He pulls Keith in for another quick hug, Keith finding it easier to breath even being suffocated by Shiro’s arms, before pulling away again.  
  
They both start to walk again, letting a few moments of silence pass through as everything settles before Shiro glances over at him.  
  
“You still haven’t said anything about my arm.” he teases and Keith shrugs.  
  
“Thought you might have just been going through another one of your emo phases.”  
  
Shiro nearly chokes on air. He stops his trek to stare at Keith who refuses to stop walking. Keith’s grinning to himself, slightly surprised at how easy he still finds it to fall back into joking around with Shiro, but relieved all the same.  
  
“That was one time, Keith!” he whines as he catches back up to him and Keith finally lets a laugh slip past his lips. He scans over shiro’s right arm, finally takes in its new appearance and only offers him another shrug.  
  
“Looks pretty cool, actually.”  
  
“You’re not gonna ask how-“  
  
“Nope.” he cuts him off, hearing their shoes clack against the stone patio again. He feels Shiro’s eyes on him, but doesn’t turn to look at him. “So if you’re half werewolf,” Keith starts, kicking a loose pebble with his shoe, “Do you turn into an actual wolf or do you kind of just get halfway there?”  
  
Shiro laughs, the noise echoing from his chest and Keith’s eyes drag over to watch the way Shiro’s eyes crinkle at the sides and his lips curl with the motion, exposing the set of pearly whites. Keith smiles with him. Shiro shakes his head, the white bangs swinging with the movement, “Both, actually.” he says once he’s able to speak, rubbing his metal arm against his chin. “But i’ve got more control when I’m a full wolf, believe it or not.”  
  
Keith perks a brow, “Really?”  
  
“Yeah.” Shiro’s hand climbs up to the back of his neck, “When I’m only half, then I’m dealing with both vampire and werewolf so it’s a lot harder to get myself back. But when i’m full on wolf, then i’ve still got a pretty good grip on what I’m doing while there.”  
  
Keith nods, “So uh-“ he rubs his hand over his pants, “What does it feel like?” he asks and feels the heat crawl up the back of his neck.  
  
“Turning into a wolf?” he asks and Keith nods again, “Well it was really weird at first. Kind of like seeing through someone else’s eyes.” Shiro drags his human fingers over the metal ones as he thinks how to answer, “Then, after a lot of trial and error, i was able to start getting more control over the body of the wolf. Was less of a passenger in my own head and more of a pilot.” He chuckles, shaking his head, “I’m still no pro but I’m a lot better than i was at the beginning.”  
  
Keith blinks, “Jess says you were pretty out of it when she found you.” There’s a flash of pain through Shiro’s eyes but he tries to keep the smile on his lips.  
  
“Yeah, I was.” he squeezes his own fingers and glances around the area, “I tore her up pretty good the first time.” There’s guilt riding his expression even though his tone is still light-hearted, “But I’m a lot better now. Got a good grip on this stuff and i plan to keep it that way.”  
  
“I believe you.” Keith says and Shiro flashes him another grin before motioning for them to go back inside.  
  
“There’s still a bit more i want to show you.”  
  
Shiro leads him in through the sliding doors into another generally spacious area and Keith’s eyes immediately land on the huge TV hanging on the wall to his right, surrounded by multiple game systems and shelves of games. Theres a red couch pressed against the wall with the windows exposing the backyard and two bean bag chairs on either side. Keith gapes and Shiro lets out another laugh, dropping his hand onto his shoulder, “You’re free to use this room as much as you want as long as you get it before Pidge does.”  
  
“Pidge?” Keith asks, eyes still scanning through the games.  
  
“Yeah. Another one of Jess’ cubs.” he says before pointing to the left to show Keith the second washroom and laundry room tucked behind another door.  
  
“Cubs? What is that, a nickname?”  
  
Shiro hums, “It’s what she calls the kids she’s taken under her care.”  
  
“Why cubs?”  
  
“Hunters and the galrans used to use it like it was a bad word so she switched it just to spite them.” Shiro shakes his head with a laugh, showing him the smallest guest room in the house, Then briefly, Lances room with it’s blue walls and white furniture, Jess’ master bedroom which Keith comments on being a “mini house inside of this one”, the huge main washroom, Keith’s room, the storage closet and then they’re back to the front of the house where Lance is lounging across the couch with his legs in Jess’ lap. They’re both busy reading magazines with the radio still playing at a low enough volume no to be too distracting. Keith slows his steps but Shiro makes a b-line for where Jess sits. He slides his hands from the back of her neck to the front and she nearly squawks and hits him over the head with her magazine.  
  
“Shiro!” she whines as he recoils with a holler. He rubs at his head and laughs, “Lance, you traitor.” she shoves Lance’s legs off her lap and he only laughs at her while she gets up and scolds the two of them.  
  
“I was reading, same as you!”  
  
“El mentiroso.” she hisses and Lance waves her off with another chuckle before he’s busying himself with his magazine again. “Are you done with your tour?” Jess asks, folding her armss over her chest as she looks over at Shiro, who’s still giggling like a toddler.  
  
“Yes.” he answers, “You’re free to do as you please with him, now.”  
  
“Goodie.” she grins and Keith swallows, suddenly feeling his throat go dry.  
  
“You should run while you still can.” Lance calls from behind the confines of his magazine, “She’s ruthless.” Jess smacks Lance’s knee before circling the couches to meet Keith where he stands. Shiro watches her from his spot just behind the couches, only offers Keith an innocent shrug when he looks to him.  
  
“Now, it’s time for the not so fun part.” She snakes an arm around his shoulders, “But don’t worry, me and Shiro, we’ll take good care of you.” Keith tenses, makes the most minute attempt at getting away before realizing her steel grip isn’t going to let up. She turns him around to walk him back down the hall, beckoning Shiro to follow just behind. Keith’s heart pounds in his chest. They turn into her bedroom and once all three of them are inside she locks the door. Keith finally gets a good look at the room. It’s a mix of whites and accents of brown. There’s a huge, soft looking rug under the bed in the middle of the far wall. White bedside tables and a matching dresser. Keith sees two shut doors off to the right and he figures they’re for the bathroom and the walk-in closet.  
  
“Why are we here?” Keith asks when he turns to face the both of them and Shiro’s got his arms crossed over his chest. Jess is still hovering beside him.  
  
“We’re gonna start teaching you how to control the pesky bloodlust.” she takes a step towards him and Keith finds himself mirroring her to step back.  
  
“How?” she raises a hand.  
  
“There’s really only one way.”  
  
Keith glances over to Shiro who’s got himself placed by the door to the bedroom, blocking Keith’s only way out. Keith feels his hands shake when he looks back at her.  
  
“Just remember,” she says once she has his legs hitting the back of the bed with nowhere else to run, “Focus on that little part of you that’s fighting for control, and bring it to the front.” then her fingers are touching his forehead and the smell of her blood is blinding any other thought that’s not _drink_.

  
~~~~~

  
Lance sits up on the couch the same time he hears something slam against a wall down the hall. He slides off the leather and walks over down to Jess’ bedroom, picks up one of the picture frames that had fallen off it’s hinges and puts it under his arm to put back later. He does his best not to listen in too much but it’s hard to ignore Jess’ _Fight it Keith!_ echoing through the walls.  
  
Lance wanders out into the backyard, spends the next hour with his feet dangling in the pool and music blasting through the speakers Jess had set up around the pool house. He’s on the edge of the diving board when Shiro joins him inside, flashing Lance a quick smile before turning the volume down enough so they can hear each other.  
  
“How’d it go?” Lance asks, circling his feet through the small waves.  
  
Shiro shrugs, “About as well as you’d think.” he says, dropping into one of the lawn chairs. “He’s a lot faster and stronger than we both expected.”  
  
“Is Jess okay?” Lance’s feet stop swirling.  
  
“She’s alright. He just barely grazed her neck before I pulled him off.” Shiro looks out over the pool, “She shut him down a little while ago so it’ll probably be another hour or so before he’s up again.”  
  
Lance nods and pulls his feet out of the water to fold them under himself, ignoring the fact that they’re starting to soak through his pants. “Hey, Shiro.” Lance starts and gets a hum in response, grey eyes idly sliding over in his direction, “Are you really happy he’s here?”  
  
Shiro smiles, a soft breath puffing out from behind his lips as his human arm comes to bend behind his head, “I’m happy i get to see him, yeah.” Lance brushes his hands over his knees.  
  
“No, I mean are you happy he’s here.” he clarifies and watches Shiro’s smile fade. There’s a few beats of silence, Pitbull’s Hotel Room the only noise brushing past their ears. Lance shifts.  
  
_People only come to Jess’ if they’re in some kind of trouble or have just been turned._  
  
“It’s easier if i pretend to be.” Shiro finally says before focusing back out on the water. Lance stares at him for a little while longer then let’s his feet slip back under the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leaving you with a little angst until the next chapter


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is Lance starting to pine? Who knows?

Lance does finally apologize. Well, _tries to._ The conversation ends with them angry at each other over something different. Another stupid argument Lance doesn’t even remember anymore.  
  
Why doesn’t he remember? It’s been over a week since the two of them have even interacted, let alone spoken.  
  
Lance would try and Keith would manage to slip away so easily Lance was more impressed than angry. Jess was getting annoyed of it. Lance could tell because not only would she spend the entire time any of them were in a room together burning holes through Lance’s head with her glare but she’d pulled him off to side to tell him, “I’m getting annoyed with you acting like children. Fix it.”  
  
So that was a pretty big give away.  
  
Now Lance was on the verge of crying. Tears pooled in his eyes and he pleaded the more Jess spoke.  
  
“We’re out of blood bags and some other stuff so me and Shiro are going out on a run to the store.” 

Jess slips on her jacket from the closet by the front door. Lance really wants to cry because he knows she’s doing it all deliberately. “I don’t know when we’ll be back but unless someone’s dying, don’t call me.” Then she’s shoving Shiro out the door and locking it behind her, leaving Lance to gawk from his seat on the couch. He doesn’t look away for a long time. It’s not like there’s a reason to. He knows Keith’s still perched behind the dinner table, eyes trained on the book in front of him. It’s one of Jess’ old supernatural books, the ones she usually keeps stuffed away in the attic from when she was a kid. He hasn’t seen her take one down since Lance first got to her place years ago, but she’s told him its a thing she does for fresh meat so they get to fill themselves in on whatever they wanted to know that they can find in the books.  
  
Keith’s been busy studying for the past few days.  
  
Lance isn’t really convinced Keith’s completely enthralled by the details of the phases of the moon and how they affect certain supernaturals.   
  
Lance dares a glance over his shoulder either way. See’s Keith doing exactly what he thought, with his bangs hanging in front of his face. Lance wonders whether they bother him. They seem to be in his eyes a lot but Lance barely ever see’s Keith brushing them away unless he’s nervous or uncomfortable. His hair is always unkept and unruly, sticking up in a few places but it somehow never looks wrong. It matches Keith. The whole _I don’t really give a shit about how my hair looks_ look works for him. Lance wouldn’t be able to pull it off. He hates when his hair doesn’t cooperate in the morning. He remembers more than a few times that he’d spent almost hours in front of the mirror tampering with it until he was at least satisfied. But Keith, Keith just saunters around after running a hand through his hair and being ok with the mess on his head. It’s almost infuriating.  
  
Keith looks up and locks eyes with Lance.  
  
Lance feels the heat explode over his face. He whips himself around so fast his neck cracks and he sucks in a breath to keep from whimpering. Keith doesn’t say anything. Lance doesn’t turn around again.

  
~~~~~

 

Keith realizes Jess wasn’t lying when she’d said she didn’t know when they were coming back. It’s already been around two hours and Keith’s running out of things to keep himself busy. He had a blood bag this morning and Jess told him it’d probably hold him over until they got back but Keith’s already getting antsy. He keeps picking at his fangs and blanking out whenever he finds his eyes wandering over to Lance. Specifically his neck and the way his adam’s apple jumps when he swallows and how smooth the skin on his neck looks and-  
  
Keith shakes his head, digs the heels of his palms into his eyes and pushes out of his seat. He hears the leather of the couch groan under Lance when he shifts enough to look in Keith’s direction; eyes there and gone faster than a gust of wind. Keith ignores it, drops down the few steps and turns down the hall to find something else to do. He debates going out into the pool house, or even just the backyard but there’s a few drops of water on the stone patio indicating a possible storm so he decides on the video games instead.  
  
He lasts maybe another half hour before his skin starts to crawl and the blood on the screen makes his fangs throb almost painfully. He shuts the TV off, drops the controller back on the small coffee table and stumbles back down the hall to the kitchen.  
  
Lance is behind the counter by now, a chewy bar in one hand while he scrolls through something on his phone in the other. He glances at Keith, watches him through his lashes as he trips up the stairs, curses up a storm and trudges to the fridge to pull out a cold bottle of water.  
  
“What?” Keith growls after he chugs about half the water, the cold stinging down his throat. Lance winces at his tone before focusing back on his phone.  
  
_Now Keith’s the asshole._  
  
It takes him a few attempts, but eventually he manages to mumble an apology from behind the bottle. Lance looks at him, shrugs and finishes off the last bite of his bar.  
  
“You look like shit.” Lance says as he tosses the wrapper in the bin under the sink.  
  
“Gee thanks.” Keith says and starts to regret feeling sorry.  
  
Lance shakes his head though, looks over at the clock on the wall, “You haven’t eaten in a while.” and focuses back on Keith with those bright blue eyes.  
  
“I don’t think normal food will help me right now.” Keith says honestly, running a shaking hand through his hair to keep from suffocating the bottle. “Jesus.” he keels over the counter, sighs when the cool marble hits his warm skin. He’s only wearing a thin t-shirt and a pair of sweats. The AC is on in the house yet he feels like his skins on fire. His hands curl into fists by his head, “When did she say they’re gonna be back?”  
  
“She got called into work for a bit so i’m guessing they’ll be here around 6.”  
  
Keith turns his head, lays his cheek against the counter to glance at the clock on the stove. 4:03. Keith groans again. _He’ll die by then._ He pushes off the counter and looks at Lance who’s shifting in his own spot, eyes a little sympathetic.  
  
“You okay?” Lance asks before shutting his eyes to curse himself. _Stupid question_. But Keith humours him.  
  
“Amazing.” he picks at the bottle, brings it to his lips again and finishes the rest of it. Lance looks at him, a little relieved Keith didn’t snap and for a moment Keith goes through the last week and how he’d always been quick to bark. “My skin feels like it’s on fire.” Keith says again and rests his forearms on the counter, soaking up as much of the cool surface as he can, “My fangs hurt.”  
  
“You need to drink.” Lance says.  
  
“I just drank a whole bottle.”  
  
“No.” Lance corrects, shifting in his spot, “You need blood.” It’s quiet for a little while. The two of them staring at each other like someone will have the answer. There aren’t any more blood bags but there still is a solution.  
  
He’s standing right there.  
  
Keith licks his lips, finds his eyes sliding back to Lance’s neck. Lance raises a hand to rub at where Keith’s eyes are and he looks back to his face. Lance isn’t looking at him. His eyes are locked on the side of the grey fridge, burning holes into the metal.  
  
“Maybe…” Lance trails. There’s something peppering over his cheeks, “Uh.” He swallows and Keith watches his throat. “It’ll only feel worse if you wait any longer so maybe…” Lance forces his eyes back, a blush dark on his cheeks and over the bridge of his nose. He pushes up the sleeve on his right arm, extends it towards Keith who watches every movement like a hawk. He stares at the skin on his forearm. It’s barely a shade lighter than on the top of his arm or his neck. Keith taps his foot. His hearts pounding in his ears and his grip's white on the edge of the counter.  
  
“You want me to…?” Keith swallows, his throat dry, tongue heavy in his mouth. He looks at Lance again, watches the colour spread to his ears. Lance nods.  
  
Keith feels his fangs throb. It feels like they’re sharpening the longer he stares at Lance’s arm, pictures the blood being pumped behind the thin layer of skin. Imagines the taste on his tongue.  
His mouth waters.  
  
“No.” Keith shakes his head. Pushes himself away from the counter, “I can’t.” He walks down the two steps, grips the edge of the first couch in his path to steady himself when his head spins.  
  
“Keith.” Lance says, footsteps echoing behind him.  
  
_Please don’t come closer._  
  
“You’re going to make it worse.”  
  
Keith shakes his head again.  
  
“If you wait it’ll get harder to control yourself.”  
  
“I’ll hurt you.” Keith says through gritted teeth. Lance is right by his side.  
  
“If you wait any longer you’ll do worse.” His grip on the couch tightens. He doesn’t want to shake his head anymore because it makes him dizzy. “Keith, you’re still fresh meat. Just because Jess put a barrier up to help you from ripping everyone apart it doesn’t mean you can survive without blood.”  
  
“They’ll be back soon.” Keith growls and hears Lance sigh.  
  
“We don’t know when that’ll be.”  
  
His hearts pounding in his ears and Lance's smell is getting stronger the longer they stand together.    
  
“Listen, what you’re felling right now is only going to get worse. Your body isn’t used to long periods without blood yet so it’s going to feel like a magnified withdrawal.” Lance puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder, fingers digging into the skin there, “Keith, you gotta drink.”  
  
Keith feels like he’s going to rip the leather of the couch. He feels cold now. “I don’t want to hurt you.”  
  
“You won’t.” There’s a squeeze on his shoulder again and when Keith forces his eyes open, there’s an arm extended just in front of him. Keith heaves a breath, un-claws himself from the couch and digs his fingers instead into Lance’s arm, one by his wrist, the other closer to his elbow. He doesn’t have it in him to hesitate anymore, barely gives Lance a chance to register the fangs piercing his skin before the blood’s flooding his tongue. Keith’s eyes shut, he presses Lance’s arm closer to his face, sucks a little harder and barely hears the small uncomfortable yelp from his left. The taste- he tastes different than Jess did. He’s not sure if it’s better. Can’t really remember enough to compare but all he knows is that Lance tastes way better than the blood bags. His blood is warm and smooth and sweet like strawberries. Not exactly. Blood still tastes like blood but he’s got this distinct sweetness to him that he clearly remembers Jess not having. The blood bags are pretty bland, their flavour probably gone from having been sitting in plastic for so long but Lance- Lance is fresh and breathing and _oh so sweet_. He keeps a steady pace until Lance’s fingers are pulling at his shoulder and not just digging in.  
  
“Keith.” he says and sounds a little breathless. There’s a growl that leaves the back of Keith’s throat. Something more primal that has him digging his fangs in further. Lance squirms and moves his hand to the back of Keith’s neck, squeezes there, “Keith.” he begs this time, his heart pounding a little faster.  
  
Keith takes one last drag and then his eyes snap open followed by his mouth. He steps away, putting some distance between them, his eyes landing on the way Lance leans into the couch and heaves just as heavy as Keith. The blue of his eyes seems a little dazed. Lance blinks a few times then finally covers the puncture wounds with his other hand. He winces. Keith curls his hands into fists and brings them up to his chest, “It’s why i didn’t want to.” His voice is so quiet, he’s surprised Lance had even heard him.  
  
Lance shakes his head, “It’s fine. S’fine.” he swallows and screws his eyes shut, “Just a little dizzy.”  
  
“I took too much.”  
  
“Keef.” Lance tries to say but the end sounds more like an ‘f’. He breathes for a little bit. Forces his eyes open and does his best to focus on Keith, “I’m fine. My blood-“ He licks his lips, clears his throat, “I heal faster than people do.” Lance pushes off the couch with his hip, blinks to focus, “Still get a little head rush, specially cause’ it’s been awhile, but i’ll be fine in a few.” He breathes through his teeth, but he’s not swaying anymore. His eyes are still a little dazed.  
  
“Sorry.” Keith says, his tongue darting out over his lips.   
  
Lance shakes his head, then shuts his eyes and scrunches his nose. The movement probably making him dizzy again. “You good?” He asks and Keith has to think about what he means for a moment.  
  
“Oh. Yeah, yeah.”  
  
Lance nods. He takes another step forward, opens his eyes again, “Great.” He walks towards the hall, “I’m just gonna go bandage this.” He’s gone before Keith can offer to help. It’s probably best he stays back anyways. His hunger might be curved but his fangs have been throbbing because he can still smell Lance on top of the taste lingering on his tongue. Keith finally feels the fluttering in his chest that he knows isn’t just from the rush of feeding. His cheeks feel hot. He forces himself to swallow.

~~~~

Jess and Shiro get back in just before 6. Jess drops straight onto the couch before Shiro even has the door closed properly. She huffs loudly and Lance saunters over from where he’d set up at the counter. He crawls on top of her and Jess lets out a low groan. Shiro drops the car keys onto the little table by the door.  
  
“You’re heavy.” Jess heaves and tries to squirm from under Lance but he’s got himself comfortable on her back.  
  
“Are you calling me fat?” he mocks offence.  
  
“If that gets you off me,” she groans, “Yes.”  
  
“How could you Jess.” Lance shifts, slides closer to the back of the couch so that only the bottom half of him still rests on top of her, “I put my heart and soul into looking good for you.”  
  
Jess huffs a laugh, but turns her head to face him.  
  
Shiro joins Keith at the dining table, flashes him a quick grin before settling in one of the chairs to just observe them the same way.  
  
“How was your day?” Lance asks, “Anything exciting or juicy to tell me?” He wiggles his brows. Jess laughs again and Keith has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from doing the same.  
  
“Too productive.”  
  
“Is that a bad thing?” Lance asks and gives her the freedom to shift the two of them into a more comfortable position. She ends up on her back, with Lance perched on top of her, head resting against her chest.  
  
“With Shiro bossing me around all day, terrible.” Her fingers start brushing through Lance’s hair. He sighs. Shiro scoffs from his seat.  
  
“We got this stuff done today so you don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the week, how is that terrible?” Shiro folds his arms over his chest.  
  
“Because we actually had to do all of it.” Jess says and Shiro just rolls his eyes. “What about you boys? What have you been up to all day?” Lance hums in reply, too comfortable to say anything with words, so her eyes end up focusing over on Keith instead.  
  
He shrugs, “Not much. Some reading. Some video games. Nothing special.”  
  
“No fighting, i hope?”  
  
Keith shakes his head, a small smile tugging at his lips. She smiles back at him, then looks down at Lance who looks like he’s already asleep. He changed into a long sleeve t-shirt, but every time his arm slips, the sleeve pulls up a bit to reveal the bandage. It makes Keith want to blush.  
  
Jess’ head perks up, like she’d just remembered something.  
  
“Shiro, darling.” she coo’s and Shiro squints in her direction.  
  
“Yes?” he says carefully.  
  
“We forgot we have to feed Keith, the poor cub’s probably starving.”  
  
Keith sucks in a breath. Lance pulls his arm closer into his chest.  
  
“The blood bag’s are still in the car.”  
  
Shiro sighs, but there’s still the hint of a smile on his lips, “I’ll go grab them, darling.” he teases and Jess grins in his direction. Shiro looks at Keith, “Give me a hand?”  
  
“Sure.” Keith stands from his seat and follows Shiro out the front door.

  
~~~~

Lance prays Jess hasn’t noticed the bandage.  
  
“ _Lance._ ”  
  
He winces.   
  
He shifts, ready to sit up but her fingers are still moving through his hair and he really doesn’t want her to stop, so he decides to stay as is. “ _Jess._ ” he tries to mock. Her free hand moves to point at his wrist. Lance curses her magic fingers and the way they make him forget what he’s supposed to be hiding. “It’s nothing.”  
  
She waits, fingers starting to slow. His heart starts to pick up the pace.  
  
“Really, it’s just-“ he bites his lip. Her hand rests on the back on his neck. Lance sucks in a breath. He can’t lie to her, “Keith was hungry.”  
  
Lance feels her tense up. Her shoulders pull up a bit and there’s a gentle pressure from the fingers by his head. Lance goes into some kind of overdrive.  
  
“He was going through the withdrawal thing. He was getting antsy and he was sweating and he looked like he was in pain. I felt bad from him. I wanted to help and i thought that if i helped him with this then maybe, maybe he’d start liking me more and-“  
  
Jess pulls herself up a bit, forces Lance to push up and back to face her and her eyes, they’re not angry. There’s something else there that’s similar to shock but not quite it, “You let him-“  
  
Lance feels the heat rush to his face. She blinks at him.  
  
“Lance!”  
  
“I know!” He covers his face and Jess mumbles out a few incoherent words.  
  
“I told you to quit being childish and get on good terms not-“  
  
“I _know._ ” he cuts her off, not wanting to hear it out loud. Jess waits another few moments, mumbles some more under her breath then lets out a sigh.  
  
“Does he at least know what it-“  
  
“ _No._ ” Lance hisses and let’s his hands drop to stare at her, “He doesn’t and Jess you can’t tell him.”  
  
She crosses her arms, “I ain’t telling him shit, but he’s going to find out eventually.”  
  
“He wouldn’t have done it if he knew. He would have rather gone through that than drink.” Lance doesn’t know if he’s defending himself to her or to his own head. She clicks her tongue.  
  
“He’s going to be pissed when he finds out.” Lance waves his arms out in front of him.  
  
“We’re on good terms, he doesn’t have to know. Not right now. Not until i get him to like me more so that when i do tell him he doesn’t go straight back to hating me.”  
  
“Lance.” she says in that tone of hers that Lance is going to remember when this entire thing kicks him in the ass later but for now he’s going to hold his ground.  
  
He pouts, “Jess i know it’s fucked up that i didn’t tell him but i just- I don’t want him to hate me again.” He does his best puppy-dog sad face, even waters his eyes for good measure “I’ll tell him. I will. Just- _please._ ”  
  
She purses her lips. He knows she can’t say no to this face, “Fine.” she points a finger, “But if you start dragging it too long, I’m telling him.”  
  
Lance lets out a breath of relief, “Ok.” he nods.  
  
Jess licks her lips and looks to the door just as it opens for Shiro and Keith to walk in with bags of blood and whatever else they’d picked up on their day out. Lance pulls himself off the couch, “Let me help, too.” Jess slips back down on the couch and brings an arm over her eyes.

  
~~~~

Jess and Shiro have another one of their training sessons with Keith, once again on controlling the whole bloodlust thing. It lasts longer this time. Keith manages to hold off for almost a whole three minutes. Once they have him knocked out and Shiro carries him into his own room, they filter back into the kitchen area.  
  
“He’s getting the hang of this faster than anyone i’ve seen.” Jess says as she sips some tea from her black and gold mug, “It’ll probably only be another month or so before he won’t need my wall anymore.”  
  
“And you’re for sure alright with him staying that long?” Shiro asks as he fiddles with a pen between his fingers. Jess doesn’t look up from her mug, idly playing with the string from the tea bag.  
  
“Are you going to ask me this every time he’s not in the room?”  
  
Shiro shifts in his seat, a noise close to a whimper leaves through his parted lips and Jess sighs, dropping her head a bit from her shoulders.  
  
“You’re hopeless.” she mutters and shakes her head, “Shiro I want him here almost as much as you do. That kid’s a gem and i want to keep him safe. So stop asking if I’m really okay with him staying here because the next time you do, I’m making you sleep in the pool house.” she raises her eyes to glare at him before raising the mug to her lips again, gaze filtering over to where Lance has been hovering behind the counter. Lance had been poking and pulling at the bandages around his forearm where they peak out from under his long sleeve. “Guapo,” Jess calls and he jumps, heat rushing to his cheeks as he looks at her. She grins and leans in his direction with the mug still by her lips, “Whatcha doin’?” she asks, knowing full-well what he had just been doing. Shiro’s looking at him now and Lance feels his hand pulling his sleeve down to cover what he’d been playing with.  
  
“Nothing.” he squeaks. Shiro furrows his brows at him. Lance feels more heat rush to his cheeks.  
  
“You sure?” she prods, “You seem distracted.” Jess tips her head and Lance can’t help but suck in some air. _Jess, you asshole._ Lance shifts his weight and goes to his his bandaged arm behind his back, _not shady at all, Lance. Good plan._  
  
“I’m just-“ he clears his throat and looks away from the two of them. The front door opens and two people barrel through the entrance. All three of them turn to look at the scene before them.  
  
“How could you say that!”  
  
“Me? How could you!”  
  
_Pidge and Hunk saving the day, once again._  
  
“The same way i can say pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza Pidge! It’s a disgrace!”  
  
Pidge brings a hand to her chest, gasping in complete horror up at the boy shutting the door behind her. “Why do i even associate myself with you?” she says and when Hunk looks at her again, he rolls his eyes. They finally seem to notice the three of them up in the kitchen and their argument is forgotten, replaced by big smiles and waves. “Hey!” they both say and Jess stands from her seat, moving Lance out of her way so that she can grab a blood pouch out of the mini fridge. She tosses the bag to Hunk, who catches it and grins. Pidge hops up into one of the stools behind the counter, eyes Lance up and down before looking to Jess again, “Why’s he blushing like an idiot?”  
  
“Am not!” Lance yelps but neither of them acknowledge him.  
  
“Crush on the new cub.” Jess says. She rounds the counter to give Hunk a quick kiss on the cheek before making her way back to her seat. Hunk smiles at her and pulls into the stool by Pidge. Lance, meanwhile, feels every inch of his skin burning to a crisp.  
  
“We’ve got a new one?” Hunk asks, pulling out the little tube of the bag. Jess nods. “He must be something.” Hunk says before sucking on the tube and looking over to Lance. Lance brings his hands up to his face, shaking his head and holding back the sincere need to scream behind his teeth.  
  
“How do you even know it’s a guy?” Shiro asks and Pidge and Hunk both shrug.  
  
“He’s only ever like this around guys. If it was a girl he’d be over-confident as hell.” Shiro nods in agreement and Lance feels ready to crawl into the nearest hole and live the rest of his life in solitude and complete darkness. He does _not_ have a crush on Keith.  
  
“So what and who is he?” Pidge asks and swings in her stool, knocking her knees against Hunk’s thigh, earning a glare. Jess is the one to respond, only after looking over Shiro’s tiny little grin.  
  
“It’s Keith.” she says and the two of them freeze. Jess brings the mug up to her lips, “He’s a vampire.” She takes a sip. Neither of them say anything. Hunk lowers his blood bag and exchanges a glance with Pidge. The two of them look to Shiro. He’s looking down at the pen again. Small smile, sad eyes.  
  
“Oh wow.” Pidge says and shifts in her seat, “When did-“  
  
“Almost two weeks ago.” Jess answers and finally lowers the mug back down to the table, “He’s taking it all really well so I need you two to be on your best behaviour. Don’t freak him out too much.”  
  
“Yes ma’am.” they both answer with little salutes and Jess scowls. The two of them can’t help but snicker, knowing how much she hates the term, but then the focus is back on Shiro who’s still not saying anything. Jess taps him with her foot under the table, gets him to blink back into existence and he forces a wider smile.  
  
“Ah, yeah, we gotta help him get used to all of this.” Shiro says, hands wringing on the table, “We gotta make him feel welcomed because Keith’s not a really big people-person.”  
  
“Sure thing, Shiro.” Hunk grins honestly, “You know we’ll do our best. We’re excited to finally meet him.”  
  
Shiro smiles back at him, a little more relieved.  
  
“Yeah.” Pidge agrees, “Especially because he’s Lance’s new crush.”  
  
Lance’s face had just cleared up out of the blush, but now it’s all coming back and so are all the eyes in the room. He groans into his hands and bends over to press into the counter, “I don’t have a crush on him!” the words are muffled, but from the laughs coming from the group, he knows they all heard him.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith drinking Lance's blood? Who would have guessed. 
> 
>  
> 
> Leave me some comments, my dudes! I hope i've still got most of your attention.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fitting in.

Keith, to say the least, feels a tad overwhelmed by the two new people beaming at him from the couches in the front living room. He’s still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes when the new voices ring in his ears and he has to duck his head in an attempt to dull the noise.

“Hey Keith!” one of them yells and he squints at them, his own heart pounding a little faster in his chest. He stares, wide-eyed and confused. There’s a small girl wearing a bright green t-shirt with big glasses and a fluff of light brown hair on her head sitting with her legs tucked under her right by Lance on the bigger couch. There’s another guy, tanner than Lance, and bigger than all of them, sitting in a mustard yellow hoodie with a matching headband on the smaller couch waving at Keith. Keith blinks a few times, rubs his hands over the loose tee he’s wearing before his eyes go searching helplessly for Shiro who he thankfully finds behind the dining table, looking slightly amused but also a little sorry.

“Keith,” he starts as he stands from his seat, leaving Jess where she sits in her usual chair, “This is Pidge and Hunk.” Shiro motions to the new people on the couch as he closes the distance between the two of them, “They’re friends of ours.”

“Nice to finally meet you.” the guy, Hunk, says, and gives him probably the brightest smile Keith’s ever seen. Keith gapes for a moment, glances at Shiro, then back to the boy before nodding.

“We’ve heard a lot about you.” Pidge adds in, hoping in her seat a bit, her knee hitting Lances thigh, earning a low groan. Keith nods again and finds himself stepping backwards into Shiro who steadies him with a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s alright, Keith.” He hears in a hushed tone above him and Keith’s starting to realize just how hard his hearts pounding. He’s not really sure why. His fangs aren’t showing so it’s not like they can see he’s a vampire and he’s not really sure why that would bother him because if they’re here then they probably already know about this stuff but his mind’s still reeling and pounding from the headache after waking up a few moments ago and this is all just _a lot_. 

He sucks in a sharp breath as Shiro’s fingers put some more pressure into his shoulder, “You hungry?” he tries, offering a distraction from the eyes staring at him. Lance is stealing glances, looking a little sorry for Keith from where he sits. Keith notices Lance tapping at Pidge’s leg and the way Hunk’s head turns to glance back at Lance would be an indication if any that he’s trying to get them to lay-off a bit. Keith’s thankful as he nods to Shiro’s question and happily turns away from the crowd to head up the little steps into the kitchen. It may not be a different room but it’s a relief either way. Keith’s got his back to the living room as he hunches in one of the stools by the counter. He’s trying to contain his minor panic as Jess comes over to crouch and grab him a bag of blood from the mini fridge. Shiro hovers by his side.

“Here you go sweets.” Jess says as she hands the blood to him.

“Thanks.” he mumbles and ducks his head a little further to busy himself with the task at hand. He hears the hushed whispers behind him, tries not to focus too much on the words because his new upgrade in hearing would make it too easy to hear it clearly. It takes him a few attempts to get the bag opened, but eventually he does and with a frustrated grunt he pops the little tube into his mouth and relishes the flat taste.

“Hey you guys.” Jess calls from where she still stands behind the counter, fingers drumming against the marble, “I got some new stuff for the pool house if you want to go check it out.”

“Oh no way!” Pidge hollers and Keith can hear her jumping off the couch. However she had erupted another chorus of groans and he could only imagine how she’d managed to hit them both, “Did you get that floaty i told you about?” He can sense Pidge already hovering by the stairs and he brings his shoulders up a bit.

“Why don’t you find out?” Jess says and the girl squeals, running off down the hall without much else. Hunk and Lance follow shortly behind, mumbling something about Pidge being too bony for everyone else’s sake. It takes a few moments, but then it’s just the three of them left and it’s a little easier for Keith to ease his shoulders down. The few minutes it takes for Keith to finish his blood bag is spent silent. When he finishes, he folds it which itching fingers and stares down at the plastic like it’s the most interesting thing in the room.

“Full?” Jess asks and he peaks up at her through his bangs. She doesn’t looked irritated or angry with how he’d reacted, no matter how rude it had been. Keith nods and thanks her quietly again before sliding the empty bag across to her. She hums and takes it from him, chucking it into a separate trash she keeps specifically for them. “You know,” she starts as she turns back to him, “Hunk’s the best cook out of all of us.” Keith’s finger traces one of the patterns on the marble, “He works for one of the restaurants in town as their sous-chef.” Keith’s not really sure where she’s going with this and he’s not sure how to respond. “He’s also a zombie.” Keith’s tracing stalls. The word rolls around in his head. He looks up at her.

“What?”

She grins at him, a sparkle in her eye that he knows is there because she’s got his attention, “Yup. A zombie chef.”

He blinks, “You’re kidding me.”

“Nope.” she shakes her head and crosses her arms over her chest, “Best chef i’ve ever met. The kid’s a prodigy and he’s still at school with Pidge and Lance studying mechanical engineering at the same time.”

“Woah.” the word slips from Keith’s lips and then he furrows his brows. “Pidge is the same age?”

Jess shakes her head, the gleam in her eyes brightening, “She’s a few years younger, smart as hell though so she skipped a few grades, doing computer science and engineering with hunk cause she still enjoys it. Word of advice, don’t leave her around any of your tech, she likes to experiment.”

“What is she?” he asks, a little hesitant.

“A fairy.”

“But don’t call her that.” Shiro pipes in from his spot to Keith’s left, “She hates it.”

“She’ll kick your ass if you do and we won’t do anything to stop it.” Jess nods firmly, “She focuses on nature, so her specialty is plants and what revolves around that. Small but mighty that one.”

Keith nods, the whole thing still pretty surreal. He hears everything Jess says but he’s sure none of it is really sinking in. None of it still makes enough sense for him to comprehend completely. Sure he’s been studying up with the books Jess keeps bringing for him from her secret stash up in the attic. She said she didn’t like bringing them down because they were heavy, bulky, and made everything out to be negative. The books were written mainly by hunters so a lot of the information followed how to kill rather than how to control. She had a few books she’d gotten from her grandmother that were more from the supernatural’s point of view, but those were few and scarce. These books couldn’t share too much because in the wrong hands it could be devastating and she’d rather Keith just ask her or Shiro for the details. But Jess respected Keith’s silence enough not to push too hard. He's still settling and although her and Shiro are the only people he feels comfortable enough around to ask a little more about, he’s still getting used to everything.

Keith perks up for a moment and Shiro and Jess pause in the little conversation they're having to look at him, patiently waiting for whatever he had just remembered. “You still haven’t told me what Lance is.”

One of Shiro’s hands curls into a fist at the question. Keith glances at it and watches the fingers unfurl.

“He’s nothing specific.” Jess’ voice brings Keith’s gaze up to hers, “you remember when i told you that there are a handful of people out in the world who are born with a certain supernatural abilities instead of being completely turned?”

Keith nods.

“Well, he heals much faster than regular people do and his blood regenerates almost three times as fast.”

“Oh.” Keith says and she nods looking ready to leave and find something else to do. “How’d you meet all of them?” He asks before she can run off and he watches her exchange a glance with Shiro who’s shifting uncomfortably in his seat by Keith.

“I’m gonna go check on the cubs.” Shiro says and excuses himself from the counter, “They’re being kind of quiet.” They both watch him walk off down the hall towards the back of the house before Keith focuses back on Jess as her fingers drum against the counter again.

“It’s a pretty small town.” she starts, her free hand coming up to scratch at her face, “I know almost all of the supernatural’s here and i know the cubs parents really well. We’ve been close for a while and I’ve been around them since they were all kids.”

“And they come around a lot?”

“Oh all the time.” she chuckles, shaking her head, “They know i spoil them and if they’re here, their parents can’t make them do chores and homework. They come by a lot and sometimes they crash here too but most of the time me or Shiro will drive them home because what parent doesn’t prefer knowing their kid’s at home safe.”

“Their parents are okay with it?”

“Oh yeah, they know i’d do anything in my power to keep them safe. As long as we keep in touch and just let them know what’s going on we’re all on good terms.”

Keith shifts in his seat, “what about Lance?”

“What about him?”

“He’s always here.”

“Ah,” she says and straightens out a bit, clearing her throat, “He’s been living here for about six years now.” The look in Keith’s eye, he figures, is enough to get her to add a little more to that because she lets out a soft sigh and rounds the counter to finally sit by him. Keith watches her the entire way, just faintly smells her blood and picks up on the calm beat of her heart. “Most of it isn’t my story to tell, so you’ll have to ask Lance if you really want to know but the bare bones of it comes down to that his parents passed away and i took him under my wing. He was alone and scared when i found him so i brought him here, thinking i’d only keep him around until i could get him back on his feet then let him go but, as you can tell, that didn’t happen.”

“You two seem close. I thought you were related.”

She smiles at that. It’s soft and small and her eyes bounce to her lap for a moment. Keith feels his own heart flutter looking at her. She cares about them all so much but Lance seems to hold an extra special place in her heart. “It was a rocky road in the beginning, we were nowhere near this cooperative. But eventually we just got really comfortable and now it’s hard to keep us apart.” She looks up again, the ghost of the smile still clear in her expression, “He’s a special kid who’s been through some tough shit. I really want you two to get along.”

Keith nods again, eyes filtering down to the table again. His hearts pounding lightly in his chest and he feels kind of bad. They’re all so established here. They have their own little family and all Keith really has is Shiro. But even Shiro fits in with them so well. Keith’s the outsider and he hates that he’s intruding on all of it. He hates adding more to what Jess has to deal with. He’s throwing them all off because he doesn’t know how to open up to people. He’s so closed off that Jess has to be the one to clear the room so that Keith feels comfortable. She shouldn’t have to do that. She should be able to spend time with them without having to feel obligated to babysit him.

His hands curl into fists.

“Hey.” she says in that soft tone of hers he’s come to know so well over the past two weeks. “You don’t have to push yourself Keith.” she says and he wonders for a moment if she’d read his mind. He shakes his head and tries to turn away but her hand comes onto his knee before he can swing away. He looks at her, “Everyone here has been the new kid at some point, and we’ve all needed a chance to settle. If you need a longer time to do that, it’s alright.” Keith feels the heat from her hand on his knee, he’s staring at her with wide eyes, “No matter how long it takes, we’ll be here and believe me when i say we want you here not because you’re Shiro’s friend but because you’re our friend too.”

Keith feels stiff. His nails are digging into his palms and his teeth are grinding against each other. _It’d hurt like a bitch if Jess and Shiro hadn't taught him how to retract his fangs_ , he thinks. She stares at him for another moment and Keith watches the brightness in her eyes fade a little. She sighs quietly and the hand she still has on his knee squeezes once before she’s standing from her seat and the heat from her hand disappears. “We still need to get you some more of your clothes.” she says as she walks around him to pick up the cup of tea she’d left on the dinner table, “I don’t know how long you’re gonna be willing to live off of spare clothes and the handful of stuff Shiro managed to get from your place last week.” she spills the rest of the cold tea down the drain and throws the tea bag out into the trash under the sink.

“How much longer do you think i’m going to be staying here?” he asks and watches her pause while rinsing the cup. Her eyes drag up to meet his and it takes a second for the smile to reach her lips.

“Well,” she starts, “like i said before, it’d be good for you to stay until you get the whole blood thing under control without having my barrier up.”

“And how long will that take?”

She goes back to rinsing the cup, movements back to as fluid as they usually are, “At the speed you’re going, probably another month or so.”

“Alright.”

“But you’re welcome to stay longer than that.” she says as the cup’s deposited in the other sink to dry. Keith feels himself shrugging before he knows he’s doing it, “I’d like you to stay longer than that.”

Keith doesn’t bother looking up. He just lets her words hang. By the time she says anything else he hears the backyard doors sliding open and voices spilling in down the hallway. Keith gets out of his seat and drops down the two steps before slipping into the room he’s been staying in for the past two weeks, shutting the door before anyone can stop him.

 

~~~~~

 

Lance notices Keith slipping into his room before the rest of them can. Pidge and Hunk are two engulfed in their own conversation about the last lecture they went to this morning, so they don’t notice the quick flash of black hair. Shiro’s shutting the sliding doors so his back is towards Keith. Lance watches him but makes no move to stop him.

When they all file back into the kitchen, Lance manages to catch Jess before she can put on the bright smile. He frowns when she welcomes them and even more so when she tries to reassure him with a playful wink. Shiro walks up behind the counter and presses in close, lips brushing her hairline, fingers light against her waist. Jess sighs. Lance can’t get himself to look away even though she refuses to look back at him.

“Where’s Keith?” Hunk asks once him and Pidge settle on the couch again, finally turning to the two of them behind the counter. Jess’ hand comes up to scratch at the side of her face.

“He was feeling kind of tired again, so he went to go take a nap” she lies.

“Another one? Didn’t he just get up?” Pidge adds, shifting in her spot, pulling her phone out of Hunk’s sweater pocket.

Shiro’s fingers squeeze around Jess’ waist. “He’s still pretty new to all of this. You guys gotta cut him some slack.” Jess says and pulls away from Shiro, patting his hand and rounding the counter, “Hunk knocked out for like three days in the beginning of his transformation.”

“Oh yeah.” Pidge kicks at Hunk's leg while she leans back against the couches arm, “He was grouchy about everything too.” Hunk blushes and pushes at her leg.

“Well cubs, I’ve gotta get some work done so don’t be too rowdy.” she brushes by Lance, putting an arm around his shoulders, grin bright as always, “I’ll be in my room so try not to bother Keith too much.”

“We won’t.” Hunk and Pidge say, their focus elsewhere. Shiro’s still behind the counter, looking a little deflated but he moves to the table instead, pulling out one of the books from the bookshelf beside it and cracking it open.

“Jess.” Lance starts, voice quiet. Her arm around him squeezes and she pops a kiss against his temple.

“Later mijo.” she says and moves down the hall towards her bedroom by the end. The door shuts and Lance lets out some air before dropping onto the other edge of the big couch, head in Hunk’s lap.

“What’re we watching?”

 

~~~~

 

It’s evening once Keith comes out of the guest room again. Hunk, Pidge and Lance are conked out on the couches while some alien movie plays on the screen, the volume pretty quiet for what Keith would have expected for the group. There are some pizza boxes on the coffee table in front of them. Shiro’s got his head stuffed in a book at the dinner table and Jess is nowhere to be seen.

“Hey.” Keith says and Shiro blinks up at him.

“Oh, hey Keith.” He says and puts a finger down on the sentence he’d been reading, “You feeling any better?” he asks and Keith only offers him a shrug, pulling up a chair beside him. “You want some pizza? I’m sure there’s some leftover from when they ordered. I tried knocking on your door but you didn’t answer.”

“Oh.” Keith says and rubs his hands together, “I had those headphones on that Jess let me borrow so i didn’t hear you. Sorry.”

“No worries.” Shiro smiles at him and shuts the book finally, pushing it away a bit, “You must be hungry though.”

Keith shrugs again.

“I’ll go grab Jess to get you some food. She’s been working for a while now so she should be taking a break anyways.”

Shiro starts to stand, “Do you have to bother her? Can’t you just grab one of the bags from the mini fridge?”

He grins at that, “She’s the only one allowed to take from it.”

“Why?”

“Keeps it moderated and it’s just safer if the person who doesn’t need the blood is the one to handle it.”

“What about Lance?”

Shiro shrugs, “He’d be giving out too much. She makes sure we only get as much as we need.”

“Will we go crazy with too much or something?” Keith asks, not really expecting Shiro’s smile to drop slightly. He rubs at his metal arm for a moment before it’s back again.

“Nothings good when it’s too excessive.” he says, “l’ll go grab her.” Keith lets him go. The time it takes him to come back with her is enough for Keith’s mind to filter through all the possibilities of what could happen to either of them when they have too much blood and none of them are any kind of positive. He feels sick to his stomach and when Jess pulls out a bag for him, he wants to decline it but he knows starving himself won’t be any better. So he sips it moodily and slouches in his chair.

“They KO’d huh?” Jess says as she walks over to the couches, pulling off the blanket still hung over the couch and using it to cover Lance and Hunk where they’re tangled together on the longer couch. Pidge was already curled in two blankets of her own on the smaller one, looking more like a burrito than anything else. Jess brings the two boxes of pizza up to the kitchen, dropping them on the counter and pulling out a slice for herself. It’s got pepperoni, bacon and some mushroom falling off the edge. “Am I driving them?” Jess asks and Shiro shrugs.

“If you’re up for it. I can drive 'em.”

Jess chews around her piece, looking down at the gently snoring bodies, “Nah, I could use the air.”

“How’s the work been coming?” Shiro asks, settling in his chair again.

“Not too bad.” she says around a mouthful, “The search is going slow but we’ve already got a pretty good idea. Matt has a lead that we’re pretty sure is it.”

“He’s not checking it himself is he?”

“Course not. Nyma and Rolo are checking it out tonight so we’ll know by the morning.”

Shiro snarls quietly, eyes a little dark at the mention of the names, “We sure will hear by morning, the way they like getting information.”

Jess only shrugs. Keith finally lowers the bag from his lips, “Info about what?”

Jess finishes off the slice in her hand, “About who turned you.”

“What?” Keith furrows his brows, “Who turned me?”

Jess nods, but Shiro answers, “We’ve been looking into it since we got you here. You didn’t seem to remember anything which is kind of surprising seeing as being turned isn’t the nicest of experiences.”

“We got a lead a few days ago and we’re following it up tonight. One of the galrans has been running loose on my territory and they tend to like taking memory away as much as they like spreading this thing like a disease.” Jess’ hands are curled on the marble this time. Her eyes a lot harsher than what Keith’s used to seeing in her. Shiro looks a little helpless and Keith puts enough together to figure that those two guys she mentioned probably like to use some kind of torture to get their information through. It’s a lesson learned for trespassing but it’s still weird to think that Jess would find that enough of a reason to be okay with that.

“Who’s Matt?” Keith decides to ask and the air thins out a little between them. Shiro straightens in his seat.

“He’s Pidge’s older brother. He’s been helping me and Jess manage all this supernatural stuff. He’s the head of our little information centre. If you need to know something, he’ll have the answer.”

“He’s been a blessing through and through.” Jess says, faint smile on her lips, “He’s made my life so much easier since we brought him on the team. He’s another genius and he loves using that big brain of his to make everything easier than it has to be.”

“Is he a fairy too?” Keith asks, voice lowering a bit with the name in fear of waking Pidge.

Jess chuckles but she shakes her head, “No, he’s human like his dad is. Pidge and her mom are the only supernaturals.” Keith nods and finishes off whatever’s left of the blood bag before handing it to Jess for her to dispose of. She glances at the clock on the stove before turning around and walking down the steps, hands gentle as she runs them through Hunks hair, whispering to get him to stir awake. Once Hunk’s stretching and trying to wake a stubborn Lance up off his chest Jess turns to put a hand on Pidge, shaking her to wake her. There’s a chorus of groans before they’re all sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. “Come now cubs, time to get you home.”

“What time’s'it?” Lance yawns. Pidge tries to hide back into her burrito.

“10:30.” Jess answers, stretching her arms over her head on the way to the front door. Hunk pushes off the couch and takes on the job of trying to wake an uncooperative Pidge. Jess toes on a pair of running shoes then peals a coat off a hanger in the closet. It’s too big on her when she gets her arms through it. She doesn’t seem fazed by the size, just shoves a hand in one pocket while using the other to grab some car keys off the little side table. Hunk finally gets Pidge free and get them both to the front walking like a pair of zombies. They lazily get their own belongings on before turning to wave some grumbled goodbyes.

“Was nice meeting you Keith.” Hunk yawns and Pidge grunts in agreement. Keith nods although he’s sure neither of them really comprehend it. “See you guys.” he finishes and they file out the door.

“Oh, Keith, you mind if i stop by your place?” Jess asks, leaning against the door frame, “I can grab some more of your clothes.”

“Uh, sure.” he answers, brushing a hand through his bangs. She nods and waves before finally shutting the door behind her. Keith blinks for a little while before turning to Shiro, “She doesn’t have my key.”

Shiro shrugs, sighing, “She won’t need it.”

It’s the only explanation Keith gets.

 

~~~~~

 

Lance wakes up at around 4am in his bed. He rolls around and tries to find another position to fall back asleep in but he knows the search is hopeless. This is why he tries to avoid naps so close to the end of the day. He pushes up onto his arms then eventually drags himself out of bed, opening the bedroom door quietly. He checks the hall and it’s silent. He walks towards the front, his goal being the kitchen to grab a water bottle but he pauses by Keith’s door. There’s light seeping through from under it and he hears shuffling inside. Lance hesitates, but decides to knock lightly. There’s an abrupt pause in the shuffling. Lance steels himself, thinking that maybe Keith’ll just turn the lights out and wait for Lance to leave. Keith doesn’t even know who it is behind the door. Well, if he focuses hard enough he can probably tell by the smell or something but still. The handle rattles and Lance jumps. Keith peaks through and his shoulders drop.

“It’s just you.” he mutters.

Lance rubs at the back of his neck but smiles nonetheless, “I saw your lights were on.” Keith lets go of the door and goes back inside. Lance pushes the wood and slips in, leaning against the frame. Keith’s going through a duffle bag on his bed and Lance’s eyes widen, “Is that all you own?” he asks, shock clear in the words.

Keith glares at him, “Maybe.”

“Oh.” Lance tries to backtrack, “No I just-“

“I’m sorry I haven’t been living with someone willing to buy me whatever i want for the past 6 years.” Keith bites over his shoulder and Lance shuts his mouth, feet ready to leave until he catches the shine in the boy’s eyes. Keith goes back to unpacking his sad bunch of clothes and folding them neatly on the bed, as if he’s not really sure what else to do with them. Lance hovers quietly in his spot, watching him. He watches the muscle move under the tight material around Keith’s shoulders. He’s got them hunched up again, shielding his work.

Lance pushes up off the wall, “you know.” he starts, walking towards the closet at the other end of the room. He pulls open the sliding doors to reveal the empty hangers, “Your clothes will look better if you let them hang instead of folding them, less creasing and they get to air out.” Lance pulls a hanger off and extends it towards Keith who stares at him with a brow perched. “You’ve used a hanger before, right?” Lance teases and Keith scoffs, tearing the plastic from Lance’s hand, mumbling under his breath. Keith spends the next few minutes hanging the few shirts and pants he has in the closet, before turning to face Lance. He’s been walking around the room, looking at how bare it still is. He knows it’s because Keith still thinks he’s a guest. Still thinks that he’s not going to fit in or that Jess is being nice for Shiro’s sake. Lance remembers when he first got to Jess’, and how weird it was for him to settle in, being who he was.

“How come you’re up?” Keith asks, already a little bit off the defence. Lance looks at him and shrugs.

“The nap before kind of messed up my sleep schedule.” Lance sits back on the bed that looks like it hasn’t been used all night, “What about you?” he asks and almost see’s Keith’s wall coming back up.

“Couldn’t sleep.” Keith answers instead and turns to busy himself with stuffing the duffle somewhere in the back of the closet. Lance fiddles with his hands but figures he may as well get comfortable. Late night talks are where people really get to know each other right? Lance pushes further on the bed until his back is pressed to the wall and his feet dangle off the edge. Keith faces him again and huffs a breath, “You and Jess really like getting comfortable wherever you want, huh?”

Lance shrugs, a small smile on his lips, “It’s a gift.”

Keith sighs and Lance can’t deny he’s surprised when he pushes up onto the bed too, sitting with his back to the wall, legs reaching the edge but not going over like Lance’s. Lance also has a hard time denying the heat pushing at his cheeks when Keith’s shoulder bumps his as he tries to get comfortable. Lance clears his throat but does his best not to move. Keith settles into his spot, leaving the smallest amount of space between the two of them. Lance tries to think of what to say next. He knows he can’t just ask him what’s been bothering him. He knows that although Keith himself is really blunt, he doesn’t react all too well when people he’s not comfortable with are too. And Lance really doesn’t want to fuck this up. Keith hasn’t kicked him out yet and that’s an accomplishment in itself.

“Why are you here?” Keith asks at a point, turning his head to look at Lance. His tone isn’t harsh so Lance figures he’s not trying to get him to leave just yet.

“Wanted to check in on why you were awake too.” Lance shrugs, trying to keep his nonchalance.

Keith looks away again, “Pretty sure you could guess.” he mumbles. Then it’s back to silence again. Lance plays with his fingers for awhile, finding something to do while he tries to keep his thoughts from running back to how he can feel the heat coming off of Keith’s body which is so much closer than what Lance was prepared for. He swallows.

“How are you handling all of this?” Lance asks, voice a little louder than intended. Keith blinks at him. He seemed content with the idea of sitting together in silence. Maybe now Lance is bothering him. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked.

“Could be better.” Keith says, eyes in his own lap. His shoulder bumps Lances as he shrugs.

Lance has to take a moment to recognize that Keith actually answered him honestly. Again. “How come?”

Keith shrugs again, “It’s all been…a lot.” _Late night talks really are magic_ , “The whole vampire thing is still kind of hard to believe and then Shiro on top of that, it’s-“

“A lot.” Lance fills in for him. Keith nods and finally glances up at him, “You really missed Shiro, huh?”

Lance swears Keith’s eyes get a little shinier before they’re back to looking anywhere but Lance, “He was like a big brother to me.” Keith says, “He really was all i had before he disappeared. I’m not good at this whole _meeting and talking to other people_ thing. As you could probably tell.”

“Hey,” Lance bumps his shoulder to get him to look up again, “You’re not actually as bad as you think.” Keith scoffs but there’s the hint of a smile where a frown usually sits so Lance takes it as a small win. “And you know, Shiro missed you just as much.” That grabs some more of the boy’s attention. “He talked about you all the time, well at least when he started to come back to himself. It’d always be Keith this, Keith that. It was cute at first but then i just started getting annoyed because _geez how good could this Keith guy even be_.” Lance teases and even Keith lets out a little huff of a laugh. “Even before that though,” Lance continues and this time it’s his turn to look down at his hands, “Before Shiro came back, Jess was the one to be taking over the Keith talk.” Lance’s laugh is small and he can’t deny, a little jealous, “You don’t even have to meet people and they already seem to like you.”

“You didn’t.” Keith says and Lance holds back his need to cringe. He stretches instead, pulling out a yawn and a nonchalant shrug.

“I’m a little harder to please.” Lance throws Keith a wide grin which is returned with a roll of violet eyes. Lance watches Keith for what he knows is longer than appropriate, taking in the pale skin, long, messy bangs, and the hard jaw. Lance swallows and as Keith looks back at him, brow already raised, he pushes off the wall and slides back to the edge of the bed, feet hitting the floor, “Well, as much as I did enjoy this, Jess has me running errands with her tomorrow morning and if i don’t get a decent enough amount of sleep I’m gonna be cranky and she’s going to kick my ass.”

Keith rubs his eyes and shrugs, “Probably a good idea.”

“Well then,” Lance starts off to the door, clearing his throat, “Goodnight.”

There’s a moment of silence and Lance figures he’s not gonna get an answer, but as he’s pulling the door closed behind him, he hears Keith’s little, “Goodnight Lance.” and he can’t keep the smile from spreading his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this took so long. Exams were brutal. 
> 
> I hope you liked it though!!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So sorry that it's been so long since an update, the motivation to write has been severely lacking, but I'm finally back!
> 
> Also i did change tenses for this chapter not because of some artistic revelation, it's just that the present-tense has never been my strong suit and it was starting to drive me nuts. (:

The world outside the gates of Jess’ house seemed different than what it used to be. Stepping outside into the streets without trees to give shade like the bountiful amounts in Jess’ backyard made the setting sun feel like the midday sun on whatever exposed skin Keith had. He caught his reflection on the mirror of Jess’ car and realized he looked paler than he did before. Not by much though. Keith had always been pale.

“Could you grab my purse from the back?” Jess asked as she shut the door, mindful of the cars on the road. Keith opened the back door and pulled out the dark blue purse from where it had slipped under his seat. He passed it to her once she rounded the car. “Thanks.”

“I still think we should’ve just taken your bike.” Keith mumbled as they walked down the sidewalk towards the pizza place. Jess snorted a laugh.

“Unless you were willing to argue with Shiro about that, it wasn’t ever gonna happen.” she opened the shop door and let Keith inside first, him crossing his arms over his chest with a huff.

“It’s not like I would’ve been driving it.”

“Sweets, I barely managed to get him to let you come with me on this quick run into the city. You really think he would’ve been willing to let me take you on my motorcycle?” she shook her head, “He isn’t okay with me _owning_ one of those so-called _death machines_. We’re lucky enough he’s not constantly snooping while we work on them.”

“Still…” he sighed, glancing around the small front area of the pizza shop, a few of the window seats filled with customers. Jess put an arm around his shoulder and chuckled.

“Listen, if we’re ever gonna get him loosened up enough to let me teach you how to ride one, we’re gonna have to play nice until then.” she leaned in a little closer and grinned, “Alright?”

Keith nodded with another deep sigh and she let him go with a laugh to finally place their order. The two of them had been spending a lot more time together recently. Lance had become preoccupied with school because exam season was about. He’d spend most of his time at the school library studying with Hunk and Pidge meaning the house was a lot quieter than usual. There was a lot of paperwork coming in for the bar Jess owned meaning Shiro had been swamped with reading through all of the forms and giving Jess the short-winded versions of all of them to get her signatures where needed. That’s how the two of them worked, Keith had recently found out. Shiro did a lot of the background stuff, the statistics and signatures while Jess was the face of the business. She met with people and kept the place running with sketchy alliances and strong deals. Shiro would occasionally go to the bar with her, show his face around and help with whatever needed but Jess preferred to keep him at home. She’d still been on her own allowed leave for the past few weeks. She was still keeping an eye out for Keith even if she’d really been trying to brush it off as her not wanting to head back to the bar. But Keith could tell that the time away was an itch under her skin. She seemed to like her work. Whenever she talked about it there was an undeniable gleam in her eye. So while the rest of the crew were busy working and studying, Jess took to taking Keith under her wing. In the beginning she tried to teach him a few things about cooking while still focusing on his training. But once they’d gotten to a point where Keith had basically gotten a solid hang of most of his new abilities, and the cooking thing never really seemed to click, Jess dragged him out into the garage and finally introduced him to Bella.

Bella was the most gorgeous ducati ninja sports bike Keith had ever laid his eyes on. Her black and red body had already caught his heart but Keith could also see how well she’d been taken care of over the years. Jess had laughed when she’d seen the star stricken look in Keith’s eyes but a new bond had been formed between them both the second she’d asked “You want me to teach you a few things?” They spent most of their free time in the garage. Jess had a second biked stored inside too, an older model bike without a front wheel, that Jess had given Keith full responsibility for. She’d started teaching him how to clean, take apart, install and reinstall all different kinds of parts. She had Keith take the whole bike apart and they’d been working on getting her put back together for the past few weeks. The work helped keep the both of them busy and it really helped Keith curb his cravings whenever the wall in his head felt a little weak. Plus, the time he’d been spending with Jess was helping him feel a little more comfortable around the group. He was learning a lot.

“Is there anything else we should grab before we head back?” Jess asked as she led them to an empty table by the window. Keith shrugged as he settled into his seat and glanced out onto the streets. They weren’t as busy as Keith would have expected. It was the end of the work day and Lance had texted Jess that he’d be getting home a little earlier so she wanted to surprise him with his favourite pizza for all the hard work he’d been putting into studying. When the idea came up she decided she wanted Keith to accompany her on her little journey and it took 20minutes of her bugging Shiro to finally get him to say yes to letting him come. Keith was thankful for the little trip. It was nice to finally leave the grounds, no matter how spacious, and see the town everyone had been talking about. It was about two towns over from where Keith had lived and gone to school. It was a little bigger and the people seemed a little nicer, though that could have been easily explained by Jess’ presence. She could’ve been compared to the likes of a mafia boss, the way she ran the place. Almost everyone knew her and a majority of the time her presence was welcomed with a smile. But Keith could see every once in awhile the way some people would shuffle away, a bit of fear laced over their expressions. He may not have known the exact details of what really went on with the _supernatural_ side of her business, but the way these people looked at her, Keith figured he was better off not knowing.

“Don’t think so.” Keith mumbled as he dropped his chin into his hand on the table.

“You don’t need anything?” she asked, pulling out her phone and checking some messages. Keith shook his head and she shifted in her seat, “You sure? Nothing you want? Nowhere you want to see?”

Keith dragged his eyes back over to her and tipped his head to the right, “Why are you looking to stall some time?”

She slumped in her seat, “Who knows when Shiro will quit being such an over-protective dad. This could be the only time he’ll let you leave for the next few weeks.”

“And here i thought _you_ were the one in charge.”

Jess pouted and pointed a finger at his face, “You know, I remember a time where it was hard to get two words out of you.”

Keith smiled behind his hand and focused back out onto the street.

 

The ride back to Jess’ house consisted of her blasting embarrassing music and taking the long way back just to see how long it’d take for Keith to slip low enough in his seat that he wouldn’t be seen by the outside world. She flicked his hand away any time he’d make a futile attempt to lower the volume, so instead he took to groaning and pulling the hood on his sweater over his face. Jess grinned the whole way and Keith could barely hide the smile behind his hands.

When they pulled up to the house, the gates had already been opened. Jess lowered the music and stiffened in her seat noticing the police car parked in her driveway. Keith pulled up straighter in his seat, eyes bouncing from the officer standing pressed against his car and Jess’ slowly hardening expression.

“What’s going on Julio?” Jess asked as she stepped out of her car and rounded his.

“Before you freak out,” Julio started, raising his hands in defence, “It’s nothing serious.”

“Don’t bullshit me with this _nothing serious_. If it wasn’t you wouldn’t be making a house call.” she snapped, “Now what the hell happened?”

“He’s fine-“

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean!” she stepped in closer and Julio recoiled back the same distance. Keith hovered in his spot behind Jess’ car, watching from where he figured was a safe place to be. This Julio guy looked young, with his dark hair and tanned skin contrasting the blue uniform. Keith noticed a mark on his neck that he couldn’t make because most of it was covered by the guy’s shirt collar.

“Jess hold on.” he instructed, trying to sound firmer than he looked. Keith could practically smell the fear coming off him in waves. It made his stomach growl. “He got into another fight so I brought him home.”

Jess paused in her spot, her entire composure tensing as her hands turned into fists. “Who was it?”

Julio rubbed the back of his neck, “you know i’m not going to tell you that.”

“ _Julio_.” she hissed and he sighed, shaking his head.

“I’m not gonna tell you and neither is Lance. We all know how you react to this shit.” Keith shifted in his spot, his own eyes widening. _Lance? Getting into a fight?_ It was hard to imagine let alone believe. Keith focused a little harder on the mark on the guys neck and as the officer shifted he could finally make it out. Keith froze. “It was just a bunch of young kids who recognized him.”

“And that’s supposed to make beating him okay?”

“No.” Julio pressed, “But that means that they broke their own rules and they’ll be dealt with _our way.”_

_“_ Your way huh?” Jess laughed dryly, crossing her arms over her chest, “Because that’s stopped them from doing this shit so many times before.”

Julio scratched at his head and sighed again, moving forward towards the driver’s seat of his car, pulling the door open, “I just came to let you know, Jess. Just let us handle it.” He sat down and Jess put a hand on his door to keep him from closing it too soon.

“If _your way_ doesn’t scare em off enough, don’t be afraid to remind them of how well I react to anyone laying their hands on my cubs.” she didn’t wait for a response. Instead slammed the door and waited for Julio to pull out and turn his car around to drive out through the gates and back onto the street. Keith could see Jess fuming as if a fire was burning behind her.

“Jess.” Keith gasped and she finally looked back to him, the anger in her eyes fading as if she’d just remembered he was standing there, “He was a hunter.”

She blinked a few times and her hand came up to scratch at the side of her face, “Why don’t you just grab the pizza’s, alright?”

It took Keith a lot of his own energy to get himself to turn enough to get to the car and pull the boxes out from the back. Jess was hoping up the front porch steps the second he’d shut the car door behind him. She rushed inside and Keith could barely hold himself back from wanting to run inside too. Fear riding under his skin from the flashbacks and the millions of warnings given to him from Shiro, Jess and even Pidge and Hunk over the past two months of him living here for him to avoid hunters at all costs. They were dangerous. They were supposed to be out to eradicate basically all of the supernatural population and Jess had just been talking to one, threatening him as if he was nothing more than a human. But Keith saw the mark on his neck, the clear sign of what he was. And there was anger slowly starting to mix in with the fear. How could she let one get this close? How could she let him leave so easily? If they were meant to be so dangerous why would she risk something like that?

Keith blinked back out of his thoughts when he was met with the voices inside the house. He locked the door behind himself, something he hadn’t felt the need to do in all the time of him living there and he finally turned to face the three people in the kitchen. Lance was sitting on a bar stool by the counter, Jess standing in front of him, her hands gentle on the sides of his face, inspecting every bruise, cut and irritation she could see. Shiro was on the other side of the counter, watching with a nervous dip in his brows as he pressed his hands into the marble. By the time Keith joined them on the little platform, Jess was rolling one of Lance’s wrists in her hands to see if it was broken or just sprained. He winced but because he could move his fingers there was a slight relief in her eyes. Keith slid the boxes onto the counter as Jess asked Shiro to toss her a bag of ice for Lance’s wrist. Lance didn’t look at Keith. He barely looked at Jess even as she babied him, but he never made a move to shoo her away.

“Why was he here?” Keith found himself asking, fists tight by his sides. Jess glanced up at him from her work, fingers slowing where they massaged Lance’s skin.

“He must’ve been the one to stop the fight.” Jess mumbled, her focus back on Lance, hand pressing the ice to his wrist and holding it there.

“But why was he _here.”_ Keith stressed, feeling the anger riding closer under his skin. He could feel his fangs throbbing, the smell of Lance’s dried blood becoming a little more clear.

“Keith,” Shiro’s voice came at him from his right, “He drove Lance home to make sure nothing else happened.”

Keith’s eyes widened in horror, “He was a hunter!” he hissed, feeling his eyes change colour, “And you let him get this close!”

Jess stepped forward to put herself between Keith and Lance, one of her hands coming up in front of her to make a clear border to keep Keith from getting any closer, “Easy cub.” she said, voice firm, eyes steady. Lance still hadn’t moved in his seat.

“How could you do that!”

“Keith,” Jess said, “Julio’s been a close associate of mine for years now. He is a hunter but sometimes he comes around to inform us about hunter activity.”

“So you just let a hunter waltz in on your property like that?” Keith hissed, wanting to step closer, but still having enough control in him to decide against it.

“No.” she said, “He’s only ever gotten this close once before and the only reason i didn’t do anything was because he brought Lance back safely.”

“You trusted him before you knew that for sure.”

“He wouldn’t lie to me Keith.” she said calmly, “He knows what would have happened if he did.”

It still didn’t feel like a good enough reason for Keith. He shut his eyes and shook his head, feeling a little dizzy. He gripped the sides of his head and groaned loud enough to try and battle the buzzing getting louder in his ears.

“Easy, easy Keith.” Jess’ voice echoed, “Focus, come on.”

Keith shook his head some more. Gripped his head a little harder. Felt his fangs grow a little sharper.

“Control it Keith.” she ordered and he felt the growl rip from his throat as his eyes shot open, focusing in on her like a hungry animal on weak prey.

“You might as well have let that scum live with us.” He snarled, unable to fully comprehend the flash of pain in her eyes. She blinked at him but kept her protective stance. Behind her, Lance finally shifted, standing from his seat to move to her side.

“She already has.” Lance said, the look in his eyes far off and a little distorted because of the bruise. Keith perked up as Shiro called for Lance from behind the counter. Jess had stolen a glance at the boy standing right beside her, looking as if she was searching for some kind of explanation.

“What the hell does that mean?” Keith asked, feeling the control sweeping up through his limbs.

Lance’s eyes looked shinier, and his chest heaved. Keith could hear Lance’s anxious drumbeat in his ears, “I’m the hunter scum she let live under her roof.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's such a short chapter after so long but hey, at least we finally know what Lance is (:


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :/

It was all a flash of motion. Lance managed to slip past Jess in her moment of dumbfounded shock just as Keith lost full control. Keith grabbed Lance’s shirt and threw them both to the floor. They were close enough to the stairs that they rolled down, Keith still ending on top. Lance still had enough sense left in him to put his hands on Keith’s chest to keep him from immediately ripping his throat apart. Those extra seconds gave Jess the chance to shut Keith down before anything else could happen. Keith went limp on the floor beside Lance. Lance let the tears slide down the sides of his face before using his hands to cover his eyes. Jess ordered Shiro to get Keith settled into his bed and Shiro carried Keith’s limp body down the hall.

 

10 minutes later, Lance had only managed to sit up enough to push his back against the closest sofa and sob silently into his knees. Jess dropped onto the little stairs leading to the kitchen and threaded her hands through her hair in an attempt to calm her own temper. She screwed her eyes shut and heaved breath into her lungs. Her hands were trembling and she could feel something stinging in the corner of her eyes.

When Lance finally did look up, his heart seemed to lodge in his throat seeing Jess sitting there with her hands tangled in her hair, the white fists obvious in her dark locks. Lance took a shaky breath before moving himself closer to her, sliding across the floor to sit by her feet, “Jess.” he croaked, weak fingers pulling at her pants.

“Why would you do that?” she whispered, not looking up at him.

Lance whimpered and pressed his forehead to her legs, “I’m sorry.”

“He could have killed you.” her voice was just over her breath, “I do everything I can to keep you safe. I just want to keep you safe and you still-“

“Jess.” he sobbed, pressing his head harder, tears soaking his cheeks again, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Jess spread her knees and moved down the two steps, letting Lance lean into her chest instead, her arms protective and tight around him, “Why can’t you see yourself like I do.” she sighed into his hair before pressing her cheek against his head. Lance tried to calm his sobs but they only got harder.

 

~~~~~~

 

Keith stumbled out of his room around 4am and followed the light left on in the back of the house. Shiro sat on the couch in the game room under a lamp reading some forms. His eyes seemed a little glazed, like the words weren’t actually reaching him. He reacted to the noise of Keiths feet hitting the floor and looked up from the papers, blinking, “Keith?”

Keith shuffled over and collapsed onto the other end of the couch, arms crossed, eyes burning already. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. Shiro sighed and moved all his stuff onto the little coffee table in front of them. “There’s a lot you still don’t know, Keith.”

Keith huffed a breath but held back any comment.

“I get that you’re confused and frustrated, but the way you acted today was irresponsible.”

“Are you really going to lecture me right now?” Keith growled, angling his head enough to look at Shiro.

Shiro perked a brow and turned to face Keith more, “Yes, I am. You’ve been doing so well controlling your temper lately and you let it get the best of you. If Jess had reacted even a second later you could have seriously hurt Lance.” Keith looked away again and tucked his arms tighter.

“How else was I supposed to react? After months of you guys constantly telling me nothing but bad stuff about hunters one ends up on our property and the other ends up having been living with us this whole time.” Keith felt the temper rising under his skin again, he had to shut his eyes and focus on his breathing to get it to cool down a bit. “Were you just planning on keeping all of this from me?”

“No.” Shiro said, “We were waiting for a better chance to tell you.”

“A better chance?” Keith snapped, “Like when?”

“When we knew you wouldn’t react how you had today.” Shiro snapped right back, the growl slipping from the back of his throat sending a small shake up Keith’s spine. Keith ducked his head and Shiro blew some air out before running a hand through his hair, pushing the front bangs up and letting them fall back into his eyes, “Keith this was also something that wasn’t really ours to share.”

“You guys have been telling me about everyone else.”

“I know even you understand why we kept this from you.” Shiro slumped forward a bit, “But this is something Lance doesn’t like sharing. He does his best not to tell people because he knows people start to treat him differently because of it.”

“He’s a hunter, how does he expect us to treat him?” Keith asked, burning holes into the dark coffee table. Shiro sighed audibly and shifted on the couch.

“He was a hunter when you first met him, Keith. It’s not like he went and joined them today and now he’s a different person.”

“Still.” Keith let his arms loose and looked at Shiro, “I don’t get any of this, Shiro. All you guys have been doing is warning me about them and now this? It feels like you’ve been lying to me this whole time.”

Shiro laid a heavy hand on his shoulder, “I know it’s a lot and there’s still so much more you don’t know but you’ve gotta just trust us when we say what we’re doing is for the best. That guy, Julio, he’s been Jess’ contact in the hunter’s for years now. He works as a cop because he’s not exactly favoured by Hunters but he still knows enough to give us a heads up if there’s anything major that’s being planned. We barely see him. Like Jess said, this was the second time he’s ever gotten this close to her place. I didn’t even let him come in cause i’ve never been a fan of him.” Keith caught the flash of disgust in Shiro’s eyes but it quickly disappeared when he focused back on Keith, “But we would never lie to you Keith. We’re just trying to ease you into all of this instead of throwing you into it like some of us have been. We want what’s best for you. For all of you.”

Keith nodded and Shiro moved his hand away. “Shiro?” Keith asked and got a hum in response, “How come Lance got beat up?”

“Ah,” Shiro rubbed the back of his neck, “It was some younger hunters who recognized him on his way back from school.”

Keiths brows pulled together as he tried to puzzle it together himself, “Why would they do that?”

Shiro sighed again, “Other than the fact that he’s been living with Jess for the past five years, he’s not just _any_ hunter.” Shiro’s hands twitched and he shifted just barely again, as if there was an itch he couldn’t find, “He was The Altean King Alfor’s son.”

“What?” Keiths eyes widened and his heart pounded in his chest.

“Lance should’ve been the one to take over the throne once Alfor passed away but when they found out he was born with supernatural abilities, Alfor had him banished and the ruling was passed down to his daughter Allura instead.” Keith’s hands tightened into fists and he turned to stare at the table again, trying to comprehend the whole situation. Shiro gave him a few moments to collect his thoughts before speaking again, “Listen, Keith, if you really want to know more you’re going to have to get it from Lance himself.” Keith still hadn’t answered and his composure seemed to stiffen more, the more time had passed. Shiro stared at the side of his head, “Keith, you’ve gotta understand something.”

Keith reluctantly looked at Shiro again.

“Lance isn’t a hunter. Not really, at least. He never got his marking because his father cast him out before he could finish his training.” the older man ran another hand through his hair, his metal arm limp in his lap, “Lance hasn’t ever hurt any of _our kind_ unless they’ve been the ones who tried to hurt the people he cares about first. He’s been suffering because of the label put on him for so long now, I really don’t think it would do any good if you were to start hating him because of it too.”

Keith didn’t answer.

“Just think about it and maybe ask him for his side of the story before you really decide how you want to deal with this, alright?”

It took a few moments, but Keith eventually nodded and Shiro flashed him a tired smile, glancing at the digital clock under the plasm TV. 4:43am. Shiro stretched in his seat with a yawn. “How come you’re up this late anyways?” Keith asked, and Shiro chuckled nervously.

“Ah,” he smiled and Keith could see the pink starting to tint his cheeks, “Jess went to sleep with Lance cause she was worried about leaving him alone.”

Keith ignored the implications and uneasy twist in his gut, “So you’re sitting here reading forms?”

Shiro’s cheeks darkened, “It’s been awhile since I’ve slept alone.”

“Oh.”

Shiro cleared his throat but pushed off the couch either way, “But I think we should both give sleep another shot huh? We’ve got a long day ahead of us.”

Keith watched Shiro, staring at him from where he still sat on the couch before forcing a yawn and agreeing. Shiro nodded and they both exchanged a quick goodbye before they retreated to their rooms. Keith didn’t get a wink of sleep and about twenty minutes later, he could hear Shiro shuffling back down the hall to the game room.

 

~~~~~

 

When 8am rolled around, Keith turned his head to stare at his shut bedroom door. He watched the shadows pass by and the words exchanged in hush tones. Keith didn’t bother getting up, still too frustrated with himself and everything else to face Lance and Jess. He waited until the two of them were gone. Jess undoubtably driving Lance to school and probably off to drop off the papers Shiro had finished working on. Keith lay staring at the ceiling until his hunger forced him to shuffle all the way to the kitchen where Shiro tossed him the blood bag Jess had left out for him before she left. His hunger didn’t seem to lessen by much and he realized it was because he hadn’t gotten to eat the night before. He dropped into the seat across from Shiro at the dinner table and groaned into his arms.

“You definitely sound like you got some good sleep.” Shiro said, sipping at his mug of coffee and flipping through a newspaper.

“Still hungry.” Keith mumbled, shifting in his seat, feeling a heat radiating through him.

“Even if I wanted to, I can’t give you any more.”

Keith turned his head to let himself breath more before letting out a low growl. The noise had become something normal to hear in the house, coming from either Keith or Shiro. Sometimes Hunk when he was over too. Even Jess managed to let out a close to feral kind of noise if someone managed to get her blood boiling enough. Keith let himself mope while Shiro continued to read his paper.

“I can make you some breakfast.” he offered and Keith sighed again, shrugging his shoulders and turning his head to the other side to glance out the window at the trees. Shiro placed his mug on the table and moved himself over to the kitchen counter to start making, what Keith guessed, was going to be scrambled eggs and toast. They continued on quietly, the sizzling of the pan the only real noise between them. Jess was the one who preferred to have music playing when she worked, she avoided complete silence while Shiro, like he had always, respected the closeness that came with silence. Keith had become so used to the quiet that he really didn’t have a set opinion on it. Although he didn’t like places that were too loud and crowded, he didn’t mind some noise, and quiet every once in awhile was good for him. It gave him a chance to think and to breathe. In about 10 minutes Shiro was putting everything on a plate and sliding it towards Keith with a glass of orange juice.

“Thanks.”

Shiro only hummed in response and resumed his paper reading and sipping of coffee. Keith finished everything on his plate and moved it off to the side before laying his head back on his arms to stare out the window. Shiro continued to read.

Not even a solid twenty minutes later did the door burst open with Jess charging inside, phone in a death grip by her ear, “What the fuck do you _mean_ Mell?” Jess let the door slam behind her and tossed her keys on the little side table by the door before throwing her free arm up dramatically, “You’re calling me at 9:30 in the morning to tell me this bullshit?” She waved mindlessly at the two of them as they watched her stomp up the stairs and over to the fridge, “Yes I dropped the goddamn papers off at the Morrison’s. Why the fuck are the _Garder’s_ having problems?” She pulled out a bottle of water and turned to lean against the counter, listening to whatever this Mell was saying on the other end. She chugged a bit of the cold water and after swallowing let out a dry chuckle, “Tell them to eat a dick.” She turned and met Shiro’s eye who sat with his arms crossed and his brow perked. She tensed and chewed her lip, “Hold on Mell.” she said into the phone and tried to flash Shiro a smile, “I’ll just…take this outside.” she grinned as Shiro clicked his tongue and then Jess jogged off down the hall towards the backyard, slipping outside. Shiro let out a heavy breath.

“She swears so much.”

Keith felt a smile tug at his lips but he didn’t let it show, “You still don’t like it?”

“And she knows that!” Shiro shook his head, “She has the proper vocabulary to use, she doesn’t need to say all of that when she’s around you guys.”

“What was that about anyways? Work?” Keith asked and Shiro nodded, folding his paper and sliding it to the edge of the table before standing and collecting Keiths plate and his mug, moving to deposit them in the sink.

“You’re washing these by the way.” Shiro said, a clear grin on his lips and Keith rolled his eyes back to the window. “Lance should be back around 3 today, so you have until then to quit moping and decide what you want to do.”

Keith growled in Shiro’s direction, flashing his fangs with the motion to attempt some sort of weak threat. Shiro laughed and waved an arm over his shoulder instead.

“My teeth are bigger, young padawan. You still have much to learn.” Shiro left and Keith sagged against the table again, pouting into his arms, wondering what the hell he did want to do.

 

~~~~~~

 

3 o clock had come a lot faster than Keith could have hoped for. Jess hadn’t had much time to talk to Keith during the day because she was swamped with calls and other business to handle. The most he got was a flashed apologetic smile and a promise to talk later. She left around 2:30 to go pick Lance up from school. Keith was lounging on the couch, knees pulled up to his chest when he heard the car pulling up outside. He was kind of facing the door so when the two of them walked in, the eye contact between him and Lance was inevitable. The black eye wasn’t obvious because of the makeup Jess must have helped him put on in the morning. The cut lip was harder to hide. The tan boy blinked away quickly and walked towards the hall, tossing Shiro a quick _Hey_ before disappearing. There was a bit of anger flaring in Keith’s chest. He could feel it in the way his nails dug into his arms. Jess watched Lance leave, her shoulders sagged forward as if there was a weight holding her down. Her eyes slid over to Keith where he sat on the couch and as her lips parted to say something, the phone in her pocket went off again. She screwed her eyes shut and dug the thing out, pressing it to her ear.

“ _What._ ” she growled and moved forward and down the hall to her bedroom. Keith heard the door slam shut and for some reason the noise made him flinch. He decided he didn’t like seeing Jess angry. It just didn’t seem natural to see that kind of expression on her face. She was always so caring and nurturing. She wasn’t a mother to him but she felt more like a big sister.

What made seeing her like this worse was seeing Shiro’s reactions too. Shiro stood behind the counter, staring down at the marble like a wounded puppy. He shifted in his spot and played with some loose papers in front of him before looking like he’d finally made a decision. He straightened and moved around the counter, “I’m gonna-“ he paused then shook his head, “She needs a break.” he said, hovering at the bottom of the steps as if he was waiting for some confirmation. Keith gave him a slow nod and Shiro repeated the motion before shuffling down after Jess. Keith continued to sit on the couch with his arms wrapped around his knees.

 

~~~~~~

 

3am had come just as fast. Jess had left the house two other times before Keith heard her throw the phone at the wall in her bedroom after getting into an argument. Shiro had come out holding the phone with the cracked screen, avoiding eye contact with Keith as he passed and walked back down to the kitchen. Lance hadn’t left his room all day. Keith retired to bed early. It felt like the whole dynamic was falling apart and Keith couldn’t help thinking it was all his fault. He shifted under the covers, eyes burning, nails pulling at the fabrics. It’d been a while since he felt so afraid to fall asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who's excited for Voltron season 7??

Keith’s nightmare hadn’t been loud enough to wake anyone in the house. He woke up gasping for air and clutching his chest but other than that no noise left his lips. He could partially see his reflection in the mirror across the room. His eyes were radiating a light red. He shut them and pushed back on the bed until his back hit the wall. He heaved into his knees, doing his best not to sob.

He could hear Lance crying from the other room. The boy was practically wailing and the noise was so wrenching Keith felt like he was going to throw up. He tried to push back harder into the wall, turning to let himself curl into the corner. He should’ve left when he first had the chance. 

 

~~~~~

 

The morning followed the same routine as the day before. Jess and Lance left the house before Keith could see either of them. This time Keith stayed in his room almost too long. His eyes flared red and his fangs sharpened so fast he’d split his own lip. He stumbled out the door but Shiro was already closing the distance between them, feeding him the blood bag. Keith fell to his knees in the hallway with Shiro sitting beside him, one hand running through his hair, mumbling about how _you need to take better care of yourself_ until they were both sure he wasn’t going to go on some anger filled frenzy.

Keith reclaimed his spot on the couch after eating only a few bites of his breakfast and ignoring Shiro’s pleas to finish the rest. Jess came back inside looking more exhausted than the day before. She tossed her keys into their bowl and kicked off her shoes before shuffling over and dropping onto the couch across from Keith’s. She lay across the whole thing with an arm draped over her eyes. Keith watched from his spot before propping his chin on his knees, eyes sliding over to the window facing the front of the house.

Shiro walked over and put a water bottle down on the floor beside Jess and another one by Keith’s feet before moving down the hall. Neither one of them moved or said anything.

Jess’ phone eventually broke the silence. She pulled it out of her pocket and shut it off without removing the arm from over her eyes. She tossed it on the floor and it bounced on the carpet before landing somewhere on the other side of the coffee table. Jess switched the arms covering her eyes and let one hang over the edge of the couch, wrist on the floor. Keith figured she’d only last a couple more minutes.

He was right.

She peaked at him from under her arm then let it settle again. Jess shifted and pulled up to sit facing Keith. She glanced around the room with Shiro nowhere insight and looked back at the sad boy, “Let’s take a ride.”

Keith looked down at himself, still wearing the same outfit as he had to bed, then back at her.

“We’re not gonna go anywhere with people.” she got up from the couch, swiping the water bottle in a swift movement and doing the same to the one by Keith’s feet. She maneuvered around the couch and over to the front closet before puling out a leather backpack, throwing the bottles in and hanging it over her shoulder. She paused by the door to the garage to stare at Keith who had yet to move, “Come on, then.” she waved him over and it took him a moment to process. Keith eventually stood and walked over to slip on his pair of sneakers then followed her into the garage, “Shut the door.” she instructed and he did before settling by it. Jess glanced around the garage before walking over to a coat rack holding a few jackets, pulling on one of the leather ones and tossing it at Keith, “Put it on.”

The jacket was baggy on him, the sleeves reaching past his hands. He felt like he was drowning in the material and when Jess turned back to face him, zipping up her own jacket that fit her perfectly, her lips twitched as if she wanted to laugh. She cleared her throat and walked up to him instead, zipping up the jacket before handing him the backpack to wear. “We’ll get you a jacket that fits properly later.” she said, fixing the straps to fit his back comfortably. Then she walked over to the table at the side, grabbing two black helmets.

“Wait.” Keith chirped, “We’re taking a ride on _the bike?_ ”

Jess placed one of the helmets on the seat as she raised the other and put it on her head. She swung her leg over the body of the Ducati and turned the key before revving the engine, “You coming or not?” she asked, having to raise her voice a bit for the noise to reach Keith. He hurried over, grabbing the helmet and shoving it over his head, fingers poking through the opening to slide his bangs out of his eyes before swinging his own leg over the seat and settling down on it behind her. Jess had the garage opening as Keith got himself prepared, and the second his butt was sat down, the door to the house opened. The two of them glanced at Shiro. Jess grabbed both of Keith’s arms and wrapped them around her waist before speeding out of the garage, leaving Shiro to yell something neither of them could hear as he attempted a slow jog behind them, giving up beside Jess’ car. Keith couldn’t help the laugh bubbling in his chest. He let the noise ring in his ears with the sound of the engine and the wind as they left the grounds and Jess turned onto the main street. Jess was obviously not going as fast as she could have been. She was already pushing the limits by taking Keith out like this, she wouldn’t risk hurting him in an accident. But either way, she was showing off. She sped by the handful of cars they passed and swerved by turns smoother than Keith had ever seen. He held on tight, his arms squeezing around her waist anytime a turn got too low or he felt like he was slipping. Other than that, Keith was laughing to himself the whole time, the noise the only thing keeping him from hollering in excitement. Eventually Jess turned up a dirt road and slowed the bike down a bit, keeping it at a fast enough speed not to throw them off over the bumps but also enough to still get them up the small hill. She slowed by an opening in the trees and pulled in, telling Keith to hop off while she parked the bike by the trees. Keith’s hair was a matted mess when he took off his helmet and his legs felt a little like jelly but his cheeks hurt from how hard he’d been smiling.

“That was amazing!” He cheered, nearly hopping in his spot, his knees too weak for the moment. Jess laughed and peeled off her own helmet, using a hand to push the hair out of her face.

“Wasn’t it?”

“I didn’t know you could ride _that_ well!”

Jess grinned and leaned against the bike, letting the helmet hang off one of the handles, “No one ever does.” she crossed her arms over her chest, “Eventually I’ll make sure you do too.” Keith beamed and hugged the helmet closer to his chest, unsure of how to let out the excitement running through his veins. The whole thing hadn’t been planned and he wasn’t given a fair amount of time to comprehend it all so his chest was a complete jumble of different clashing emotions. He felt his eyes water and he thought his cheeks would burst from smiling. Keith turned on his heel and that’s when he saw the open view of the city. It wasn’t anything magnificent. And it didn’t overlook the whole thing, but with Keith’s running emotions the scene was gorgeous. He walked forward and dropped onto the grass by the edge of the cliff as if he’d been exhausted from a days work. Jess joined him not long after and they sat in silence, overlooking the busy streets and graffitied buildings.

 

~~~~~~

 

The adrenaline eventually wore off and the guilt seeped back in under Keith’s skin. He hugged the helmet close to his chest again for a different reason, his knees wanting to come up but it was in their way.

“I know I should talk to him.” Keith broke the silence and Jess glanced at the side of his face. She had one leg hanging off the edge while the other was bent to her chest, allowing herself to lean against it. “Even if i have you and Shiro explain everything to me, I know it won’t make a difference.” Keith stared out over the city with a harsh focus, his brows bunching up with every careful word, “I just- this was all just more stuff being kept from me. It was more secrets and I get _why_ but that still doesn’t change-“ he cut himself short and blew a harsh sigh from his lips. “It’s already hard enough for me to try and understand and decipher stuff around me.”

“You don’t wanna have to worry about us deliberately keeping shit from you.” Jess said more as a statement but Keith nodded in agreement either way. She waited a few moments, watching him before turning to look out over the streets herself, “Yeah, that was our mistake.”

“I do get why you guys did it.” Keith said, pressing his chin to the top of the helmet.

“It was still a dick move.” Jess admitted, “You deserve to know this stuff, Keith. You’re one of us. We just made the mistake of thinking how you were to find out was up to us.” She turned to face him, pulling up her leg from the ledge and crossing both of them under her, “I am sorry for that.”

“S’alright.” he shrugged, mumbling.

“That was really the biggest thing, though. There’s not all that much else you’re missing out on.” Keith let his head fall to the side so he could look at her.

“Are you gonna do anything about the people who hurt him?” he asked and Jess looked down at the hands in her lap, playing with a few strands of grass.

“No.”

“How come?”

“Because he asked me not to.” Jess let her hands go limp and her eyes climbed back up to meet Keith’s. Keith couldn’t see anymore of the anger from before, just a clear sadness. He nodded and they both looked out over the city again, waiting another couple minutes before Jess asked what the time was. Neither of them had a watch and when Keith pulled his phone out of his pocket, he’d finally noticed the battery was dead.   
“No wonder Shiro never called.” he mumbled and Jess laughed while pushing herself up onto her feet.

“That also means we’re in for an ass kicking when we get home.” she extended a hand to help Keith up. He winced at the thought of what was waiting for them back at the house. He grabbed her hand and she pulled him up.

“Maybe we just never go back.” he suggested, following her back to the bike, “We just drive off and live in a shack somewhere in the dessert.” Jess snorted as she put the helmet over her head and swung her leg over the seat.

“We’ve gotta be honest with ourselves,” she said, letting the engine come to life with the turn of her key, “He’d sniff us out no matter how hard we tried to hide.”

Keith groaned but put his own helmet over his head and got settled in the seat behind her.

 

 

~~~~~

 

The two of them lucked out in the middle of Shiro’s scolding when Jess’ phone went off where Shiro was clutching it in his left hand. Keith and Jess had their heads bowed as Shiro went on about the dangers of riding off like that especially without telling anyone and not having a working phone with them in case something happened. As soon as Jess’ phone rang he paused, looked down at the screen to decide whether the caller was worth answering before sighing and bringing the phone up to his own ear. “What is it, Mell?”

Jess and Keith exchanged a glance, she shot him a quick wink which nearly had his lips breaking into a smile. Shiro cleared his throat and the two of them looked away from each other. Shiro crossed an arm over his chest and let the one holding the phone rest against it as he listened. “Why do you need us both to come in?” Shiro said, brows lowering and Jess perked up finally, eyes widening. She glanced behind him at the clock on the wall before bounding forward and grabbing the phone from his ear.

“Mell, I have to pick Lance up today.” She didn’t move from her spot and kept one hand on Shiro’s still bent arm, her fingers bunching up the material of his shirt, “That’s going to take too long, I’m not gonna make him wait-“ she paused, “I can’t pick him up early either, he’s writing an exam.” she pressed her forehead to Shiro’s chest and Shiro rubbed the side of her arm. Keith felt like he’d always be surprisedabout how easily the two of them could fix their issues. No matter how mad one was at the other, they could still rely on each other for a sense of comfort. Keith chewed on his lip and stared at the floor by his feet. He took a breath and figured he could use this opportunity for himself and a way to pay them back.

“I can pick him up.” Keith said and he could feel the air around them still. He didn’t want to look up. He screwed his eyes shut where they were hidden behind his bangs.

“What?” Jess asked, looking for clarification.   
“You’ve said before his school’s not far from the bar. I’ll wait for him until he’s done writing then we can walk over and wait for you two to finish.”

Keith still refused to look up. He knew they were debating it. Questioning and arguing through nothing more than some exaggerated looks. Eventually he heard Jess shift. “I’ll call you back, Mell.” followed by a bit more tense silence and finally, “The bar _is_ only a few blocks from the school.”

“There’s a bunch of people we know on the way and it’s not gonna be that late out.” Shiro added and Keith finally let the breath he was holding out. There was heat rushing to his cheeks so he still kept his gaze by his shoes.

“And you’re sure you’re fine with this?” Jess asked and Keith nodded. Shiro and Jess exchanged another glance, “Alright, then.”

 

 

~~~~~

 

“Now remember, If anything happens you call one of us. If you run into some hunters, go the other way. Don’t fight anyone and don’t let him take any detours.” Shiro was saying from his seat in the front. Jess was focused on the road with her fingers tapping nervously on the wheel. “Oh, but don’t tell him not to take any detours because that usually makes him want to take them.”

Keith listened absently from the backseat with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his hoodie, eyes focused on the passing buildings and people. Jess’ plan was to drop Keith off at the school and have him wait outside for the next hour. They couldn’t have texted or called Lance because his exam had started at 2 but it was already 3:30. It was his last one which was why Jess had been willing enough to let Keith pick Lance up without any supervision. When they were still at the house, Jess had been in a sort of mild panic thinking that they could ask Pidge’s older brother, Matt, to join Keith and have them walk together. But Shiro had to remind her that he was working full-time at the academy and there was no way to get in contact with him even if they wanted to. She’d given in and now it was Shiro’s turn to chatter nervously. Keith let it happen and satisfied him with an answer every once in awhile, but he was trying his best to calm his own tension at the idea of finally being left alone with Lance after their little outburst.

Jess pulled up to the huge doors of Voltron Academy and put the car into park. Keith stepped out of the car and shut the door behind him, only to have Shiro roll down his window. “You’re gonna be safe, right?” Shiro asked.

“Yeah, Shiro.” Keith nodded and watched Jess lean forward to get into view, a nervous smile on her face.

“He should be done around 4:30. Lance always finishes early.” she chewed her bottom lip and the hand that was still holding the wheel tapped a quick rhythm, “Thanks for doing this.”

“No problem.”

Her expression relaxed a bit and she tapped Shiro on the chest, earning a surprised grunt, “Well then we’re off.” Jess changed the gear and waved at Keith. He waved back while Shiro yelled about not wandering off too far from campus. Keith watched the car turn off the grounds and disappear around the next turn. He sighed to himself and pulled the pair of earphones Jess had gifted him before they left the house out of his pocket. He wrapped them around his ears and stuffed them in before browsing through the music on his phone.

 

 

~~~~~

 

Students slowly began to trickle from the big front doors of the school the closer it got to the finish time for the exam. Keith had found himself a spot on a picnic bench under a big oak where his view of anyone leaving was clear. He didn’t recognize any of the students but anytime someone did leave through the doors, Keith’s heart dropped and he found his fingers tapping against the wood. When a group of about 5 students walked through the door, Keith glanced down at the table, staring blindly at his dark phone screen in an attempt to calm himself. One of his hands crawled up into his hair. _Get a grip._

Keith wasn’t good at talking to people. That was just the bottom line. He tried his best, but the meaning he wanted to get across never seemed to find it’s way to the other person with the words he used. Then his frustration would build, mostly towards himself, and the anger would make things worse. The longer he waited for Lance, the more the anxiety built up and made him uncomfortable in his own skin.

“Keith?” a voice said from in front of him and Keith jumped, pulling a earphone out with the motion. He stared, wide-eyed at the boy in front of him. Lance had his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “What are you doing here?” The lack of emotion in Lance’s voice was enough to make the space in Keith’s chest smaller.

“I uh-“ Keith cleared his throat and looked around as if some excuse would come to him if he stalled for long enough, “Jess and Shiro got called into work.”

“Oh.”

Keith swallowed and looked back at Lance. His eye wasn’t swollen anymore but the makeup hiding the bruise was obvious if you looked hard enough, or if you simply knew what to look for. “I’m supposed to walk you back to the bar.”

Lance shrugged, “Alright.” and started walking down the path towards the street. Keith scrambled to stand but eventually fell into step beside him. They walked in silence, Lance leading the way with Keith doing his best to make it seem like he knew where they were going. He’d still never been to Jess’ bar. He’d only heard stories and descriptions from the rest of them, a lot of his knowledge also coming from the stories Jess liked to tell him whenever the two were busy working on the bikes. All he knew was that the place was called _The Lion’s Den_ and it was the most popular bar in town for both humans and supernaturals.

Keith would glance over at Lance way more than would be considered normal. If they hadn’t been walking together Keith would have looked like a creepy but very obvious stalker. Lance took notice but he never said anything. He just kept moving forward. Keith finally noticed he wasn’t wearing his backpack, “Did you forget your bag?” Keith asked and Lance glanced at him for a moment. Staring, before looking away again.

“Didn’t bring one.”

“Oh.” Keith said because he was an _idiot_ who couldn’t think of anything better to say. He searched desperately for a way to make this whole conversation slide easier into what he _actually needed to talk about._ “How’d your exam go?” Keith asked _instead._

Lance stopped them in the middle of the sidewalk and turned to face Keith with what looked like an actually irritated expression, “Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?”

“I don’t need you to pity me.” Lance snapped, “If Shiro or _Jess_ put you up to this, they’re not here so you can cut the shit.”

Keith looked at him, a little dumbfounded. His lips parted to say something but once again he couldn’t find the right thing to say. “I’m not-“

“Seriously Keith, I’m not stupid. I know they tore into you for what happened but I don’t need you standing here _pretending_ to be my friend.”

That seemed to trigger something, “I’m not pretending to be anything!” Keith barked back, hands curling into fists, “And I’m not _pitying_ you. I wouldn’t do that.”

“Then what? You genuinely give a shit about how i did on my exam?” Lance laughed dryly, crossing his arms over his chest instead, “I’m more than sure Shiro and Jess made you wait for me so we’d be forced to spend some _alone time_ together in an attempt to mend what happened.”

“They didn’t force me to do anything. I’m the one who volunteered to pick you up.” Lance was taken aback and the anger taking over Keith’s usual thought-process saw this as the perfect opportunity to take the wheel. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to talk to you about this for the last ten minutes we’ve been walking in awkward silence. I wanted to apologize and actually try to get your side of the story to try and make sense of everything but since you’re acting like a complete douchebag right now it’s pretty obvious that maybe it’s not me who’s the one who doesn’t want to fix anything.”

Keith watched Lance’s eyes widen and his expression fall. He didn’t wait any longer before starting to walk off down the sidewalk again. He was fuming and Keith could already feel his control slipping through his fingers like sand. He needed to get out of the street and somewhere he could focus. It was too loud and there were too many things to distract him. His fangs were already pushing at his lips and his chest was heaving with every breath. He stumbled a bit, the setting sun seeming too bright for his eyes but he spotted an alley behind some Chinese restaurant and he ducked into it. He pressed against the brick wall and dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. He could hear Lance calling for him, hear his footsteps coming closer as he found where he’d tried to hide. Keith could smell his blood. The dried bit still hanging off his lip, and the fresh blood pumping through his veins. Lance’s heart was beating a little faster than normal. Keith wanted to bend forward. He wanted to _taste him._ Lance smelled _so good_ and he just kept coming _closer._ It wasn’t helping Keith get a grip on things at all. Sure he’d had his bag of blood for breakfast but Keith had been so much hungrier the past few days. Shiro had told him it was the stress, that when there was too much going on it would make Keith feel more hungry even though he didn’t _really_ need to eat. And Lance was smelling _extra sweet._

“Keith?” Lance asked, only a few steps away, “Buddy, you alright?” He was coming closer and though Keith wanted to tell him not to, wanted to beg him to just wait out on the street where it was safe while he got himself in order, that primal urge in him wouldn’t let the words out. Keith grunted instead, bent forward and parted his lips to try and breath but for some reason it made the smell of Lance dance across his tongue as if he’d already pierced his skin. He could feel himself drooling, feel the sand turning into water. “Keith?” Lance asked again, putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder. That’s where Lance had fucked up. If anyone would have asked later, Keith would’ve probably blamed that one touch for the way he straightened and gripped Lance by the shirt to switch their positions so that Lance was pressed against the wall in the alley.

The thing was, Keith still had some control. He knew that because he didn’t _immediately_ stick his fangs into the side of Lance’s neck. It was probably the look on Lance’s face. The fear in his eyes. The way his hands desperately pushed at Keith’s chest and shoulder. But he was trying to still seem like the one in control. “Keith don’t.” he said, voice just a fraction away from being as firm as he probably wanted it to be. “Control it.” He was trying to be like _Jess._

Keith leaned in closer, Lance’s resistance more of an annoyance. He could easily have done what he wanted. “You smell good.” Keith heaved, their faces inches apart. The smell of blood was clearer. His eyes caught the cut on Lance’s lip. He must have been picking at it because there was just the smallest drop hanging against the drying skin. Keith blinked slow and stared at it. For so many reasons, no matter how foggy in his hunger-crazy head, he knew it was a bad idea. A _horrible_ idea. But he remembered how Lance tasted the first time. How sweet and savoury and _good._ It made his mouth water more and that was enough to get him to lean in and lick at Lance’s bottom lip. That _tiny,_ practically _minuscule_ drop of blood was enough to send fireworks up Keith’s spine. Somehow the thought to suck Lance’s bottom lip into his mouth in an attempt to get more seemed like a brilliant idea, so he did exactly that. When the taste wasn’t enough he pulled away, ready to finally give in and just bite down on the skin of Lance’s neck but he caught the look in the Lance’s eyes again. This time it was different. A lot different. The colour exploding across Lance’s face and the way he’d squeaked out Keith’s name sent Keith reeling backwards against the opposite wall. Keith covered his own mouth and fought back the need to drink blood with the need to _crawl in a hole and die_ with such an intensity his fangs throbbed when they settled back somewhere in his gums.

Lance was in a similar shock, still pressed against the wall, chest rising and falling as if he’d just run a marathon, his eyes wide and still very much staring at Keith. Neither of them knew how to react. Neither of them knew what to do. So they stood there, both with faces burning red like a pair of ripe tomatoes until one of the restaurant employees pushed open the back door to go out for a smoke break. He paused noticing the two idiots pressed to the wall and started yelling to get them to scram. It was all the convincing the two of them needed before they were both running out onto the street and down at least another block before they were slowing down, Lance dropping onto the little patch of grass by the spacing between some houses to catch his breath while Keith was content just bending over and pressing his hands to his knees in a weak attempt to get air back into his lungs. It took them both a few minutes of breathing that had every passerby wondering if they should stop and ask to help.

Keith was the first to recover, gaining enough of himself back to straighten and let the world fall back into focus. Lance lay in the grass, his arms spread out, lips parted. Keith glanced over to look at him, wanting to ask if he was alright but the embarrassment came back and sewed his throat shut. Lance raised a hand into the air as if he was calling for attention. He seemed ready to say something but the second his eyes opened and he looked at Keith, his cheeks flushed darker. They stared at each other for awhile again.

Then Lance started laughing. It started out as a few giggles he tried to hide behind the hands that flew up to cover the noise. They slowly grew into something louder that even his hands couldn’t mute and eventually he’d given up trying to cover it and let the laughter bubble out of his chest.

“Why are you laughing?” Keith asked, nerves crawling under his skin like ants, but the noise was making butterflies bloom in his stomach. Lance laughed harder after Keith asked the question. His arms wrapped around his sides and his eyes screwed shut. Keith’s lips disobeyed him. They curved upwards and a weak noise slipped from behind his teeth. “It’s not funny.” He tried to say but his tone contradicted his own chuckling. The two were left breathless again as their fit of giggles came to a slow and Keith joined Lance on the grass, grunting as he finally gave in to take a seat. Lance pushed himself up to sit properly and pulled his knees against his chest. They were lucky it was such a nice day out. The breeze wasn’t too cold even if the day was getting later, and the streets weren’t too busy because it was still just before rush hour. They watched the cars pass by and could hear the kids playing at the park across the street.

“Sorry about going off on you.” Lance said, deciding to be the one to break the silence this time.

“Sorry about doing the same back at the house.” Keith crossed his legs and let his hands fall in his lap, “I overreacted.”

“We all did.” Lance shrugged and let his head rest on his knees facing Keith.

“I’m still really confused about all of this so-“

“I get it. It’s alright.”

Keith flashed him a quick smile. They let some more silence pass between them, “I don’t hate you, by the way.” Keith said, tugging on the grass by his shoes.

“After what just happened, I didn’t think so.” Lance teased and Keith felt his ears burn hotter when he caught the boy winking at him. Keith was thankful for the bangs hiding his face.

“Sorry, I don’t know why I-“

“I’m teasing!” Lance chuckled, bumping their shoulders, “Don’t freak out again.” Lance pushed up onto his legs and offered his hand to help Keith stand. Keith took it hesitantly and avoided Lance’s eye when the touch sent shivers down his spine. Lance seemed so calm about the situation but Keith swore he could still see the light brush of pink over his tanned skin, “We should get to the bar before it gets too late.”

“Yeah.” Keith agreed and rubbed the side of his arm. They started down the sidewalk again and Lance, once again, caught the way Keith would glance at him as they walked. This time it made Keith’s stomach churn and his hands sweat. It was worse because this time Lance did comment.

“I can tell you more about myself if you want.” He said, glancing. Keith nodded because he didn’t trust the sound of his own voice. “It basically ties into how I met Jess so I might as well just start there.” He had them turning left and Keith could already see the bright sign of the bar. Keith deflated a bit, kicking a stone in his way. Lance caught the motion and bumped his shoulder again, “We’re here so I’ll tell you everything once we let Shiro and Jess know we made it back alive.” Lance smiled at him and Keith couldn’t help but smile back as they walked through the front doors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These updates have been coming faster than expected. I'm already almost done chapter 9 :O


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OooOo a flashback chapter

Lance couldn’t breath. His legs weren’t touching the ground and the brick behind him was pressing all across his back in the most uncomfortable of ways. The claws at his neck were starting to tear at his skin.

He gasped. His own nails scratched and pulled at the wrist holding him there but nothing was working.

His vision was starting to get fuzzy.

The blond guy - _thing_ \- who was holding him had glowing yellow eyes. Not the nice gold kind. More of the muddy, unhealthy kind of piss yellow. Lance wondered if maybe that was another reason he was so angry.

“Hunter _scum_.” the thing hissed and clawed harder. Lance felt his eyes roll back into his head. He tried to kick desperately. He was going to die at the hands of a werewolf. A young one too, not even at it’s full capacity, one Lance could have easily fought off and killed if only he’d had paid more attention during his training lessons. But here he was, being choked to death by a werewolf.

They didn’t teach you this stuff back at the Altean academy.

Just as he thought he’d been taking his last breath, the grip around his neck loosened completely and Lance’s feet touched the pavement mere seconds before his knees and palms followed. He heaved the air into his lungs, forced it through the burn so he could breathe.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He didn’t recognize the voice but it was all the reminder he needed to push back onto his legs and press his back into the wall. The werewolf that had been holding him was on the floor a few feet away, whimpering and doing it’s damn best to try and get back to it’s feet. Lance turned his head to the opening of the alley, eyes locking on the new party.

She was standing with her hands in the pockets of the dark purple hoodie she wore over ripped jeans. Her long brown hair was swept back over her shoulders. Her eyes weren’t glowing. She didn’t have fangs or pointed ears.

“He’s a hunter.” the werewolf’s shoe scraped against the floor as he pushed up onto two legs, shoulder pressed into the wall for support, “I was going to-“

“To what?” she cut him off, expression somewhere between annoyed and exhausted. The werewolf growled, the noise bouncing off the small space between the building walls, sending a string of shakes up Lance’s spine.

“He’s Alfor’s kid.”

“I don’t care.” she said the words and Lance believed her. The werewolf took a step forward and she’d barely blinked at him.

“If we just end him now-“

“Then what?” she cocked a brow, the only real sense of emotion coming from her, “Then we’d have the entire hunter army on all of our asses? Did you hit your head too hard on the floor or are you just that fucking stupid?”

Lance bit back the noise that tried to climb up the back of his throat. A sort of snort that was forced into a stifled cough. The werewolf looked to him either way, lips raised to flash the set of fangs on his teeth. Lance pressed into the wall harder.

“Not like it matters now.” The wolf snarled, curling his clawed fingers into a fist, “He’s just gonna go crying back to daddy anyways, might as well give ourselves a head start.”

Lance squealed, shut his eyes and turned his head to the side when the werewolf tried to take a step towards him, but no impact ever came.

“If you touch him again, you’ll be dealing with more than just hunters.” the girl’s voice came again.

“You’re really going to protect him?” the werewolf spat, walking towards her once Lance felt well enough to open his eyes again. The girl’s eyes were locked onto the wolf as he closed the distance between them. Lance felt his hands start to shake, a few beads of sweat making their way down the back of his neck. Her hands were still in her pockets.

“Leave, pup.” she’d said and he’d snarled at her, pressing his face closer to hers.

“He’s scum.” Lance could see the streetlamp light reflecting off the guys fangs from where he kneeled on the floor, “He’ll get us all killed.”

“ _Leave_.” it was a warning. Lance could hear the _before i change my mind_ in the way her eyes seemed to darken. The wolf stepped back. He let his fangs and claws disappear before his eyes died back down to their human green. He shook his head and walked the rest of the way out onto the street.

Lance figured maybe if he didn’t make any noise she’d forget he was there and leave. But he wasn’t that lucky.

She sighed, brought her eyes back to where he sat and freed one hand to rub the side of her face. No claws.

“You’re really alfor’s kid, then?”

He stared at her, heart too loud in his ears. She tilted her head. He wondered if she could hear it too.

“Are you hurt?”

He swallowed, his own hand coming to rub at his throat. He could feel the scratches but no blood. He shook his head.

“Can you stand?” she took a step forward and Lance winced, lowering his head. She stopped moving, “Easy, I’m not going to hurt you.”

His chest was heaving again. He blinked up to see her hand extended, there if he wanted to use. He swallowed and pushed up off the floor himself. She didn’t seem offended, instead slipped her hand back into the hoodie pocket and looked him over. He wrapped his arms around his waist.

“What are you doing out in this area all alone at 4am?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” he mumbled under his breath and kept his shoulder pressed to the wall. She pursed her lips.

“Those hunters don’t seem to teach manners in their extensive courses, now do they?” she sighed again, turning a little bit to look out at the opening of the alley. “No matter, let’s get you home.”

“What?” Lance’s eyes widen when her’s came back to look at him. She perched another brow.

“It’s late, you’re alone, and you’re what? Twelve?”

“Fourteen.” he corrected, feeling a surge of confidence seeping back in under his skin as he popped a hip out to the right, “And you’re just going to walk me straight into hunter territory?”

She shrugged, “Guess so.” she motioned with her head, “Lets go, I’m tired and you’re probably in for some kind of ass-whooping so let’s make sure you’re still in one piece for it.” she turned on her heel and started for the street again, leaving Lance to stand there with his lips parted and brows furrowed. “Unless you’d rather stand here alone.” she called over her shoulder and that had Lance’s feet moving before he could make a solid decision. The street was a little less nerve-wrecking than the alley. Most of the streetlights were still on and some of the houses or buildings they passed had automatic lights that would turn on when they walked in front of them. It took Lance a solid ten minutes of them walking together in silence for him to break.

“I can’t go home.” He said as they slowed by the train tracks that were used as a makeshift border between the regular city and the town claimed by the Hunters. She looked at him. He swallowed the lump in his throat, “I-they kicked me out.” She stopped walking and faced him. His hands curled into fists by his side, “They’ll probably just kill us both if we get too close.”

“Were you just going to wait till that happened to tell me that?” she asked and Lance blinked at her, unsure of the expression she wore. She was hard to read. “We could have been halfway to my house by now, but here we are.” she yawned and looked around the area they were in before starting back the way they came.

Lance watched her incredulously.

“What the fuck do you mean?”

“I mean, I’m not leaving you in some sketchy motel for the night, especially knowing that blabbermouth has probably already told every supernatural in a 30mile radius that you’re out here,” Lance, not having much choice, jogged to catch up with her. She held a slow pace, undoubtably to keep a close distance between them, “M’not gonna let you get tore up because of some feud that doesn’t even directly involve you, so you’re going to spend as long as you need in one of my spare bedrooms and yada yada we’ll get you back on your feet eventually.” She turned them down a street Lance didn’t know, where the houses gradually got bigger and more spaced out from one another by pockets of thick, huge trees. Lance kept closer to her the further they walked. He felt his shoulders shake when a breeze rattled the branches above them. The girl glanced at him and chuckled, “You spook easy for an altean’s kid.”

“I do not.” he tried but a howl followed the wind and he couldn’t help stepping in closer to her, his arm bumping hers. She laughed then, shaking her head.

“They won’t touch you Lance, no worries.”

He looked at her, arms crossed over his chest to shield himself from the cool breeze, “You know my name?”

“Everyone knows your name, prince.”

“Don’t call me that.” he snapped and she threw a look over at him. He curled his nose and looked to the floor, kicking a loose rock with his foot. He didn’t deserve the name anymore.

“Well, I’m Jess.” she offered, flashing a small smile when he’d glanced at her from below his lashes.

They walked silently for another few moments before Lance broke again, “Aren’t you gonna ask why they kicked me out?”

She shrugged and Lance pulled his arms in around him tighter. She glanced at him and noticed the deep frown, “Why did they?”

“Because they found out i’m not fully human.”

This seemed to elicit some sort of reaction because her gaze stayed fixed on him for longer than a second, “What do you mean?”

Lance suddenly felt more exposed and he hung his head as they walked, “I heal faster than other humans do.”

Jess was the one who stopped walking. Lance didn’t want to but he was forced to stop and angle himself just enough so he could see her, “You can heal quick?” she asked. Lance nodded and felt the wave of nausea come over him like it had when the results had first been exposed to him in front of his father. The anger that followed was horrifying. Lance shuddered remembering the look in Alfor’s eyes. Lance had been so sure Alfor was going to kill him right then and there, but Allura had stepped in the way before he could do anything. “Is that all you can do?” Jess asked, bringing Lance back from his thoughts. He blinked and felt his own anger surfacing.

“What do you mean _is that it?”_ He hissed, “I’m not normal! Me! Alfor’s _son_! The heir to the Altean Throne and you’re asking if _that’s it!”_ he screeched, his voice echoing in the empty streets. He swore there was movement in the trees, felt the fear threaten to replace the anger when Jess’ attention faltered enough to sweep the area around them but Lance continued his rant, “I’m not fully human so I should be glad they only kicked me out instead of having me _dealt with_ instead.”

Jess’ eyes fell back on him and this time the emotion in them was clear, “Those are Alfor’s words, not yours.” she snapped, but didn’t make to move any closer to him.

“How would you know?” Lance’s bottom lip shook with the question. His heart pounded in his chest.

“You expect me to believe you truly think this reaction was right?” she asked, the anger seeping away with the harsh breeze, “You’re a child, Lance. You’re fourteen for fucks sake.”

“They have a responsibility to-“

“Protect _you.”_ she finished for him and Lance’s hand came up to grab at his chest. The pain there was throbbing and it was as if his heart was threatening to burst. “You’re _his_ son, Lance. All you can do is heal faster than a regular person, you’re not even a proper supernatural.” Jess glanced off to the side again, this time catching the clearer movement in the dark brush. She groaned under her breath and stepped in closer to Lance, spooking him with the fluid movement. “We have to go.” she whispered, one hand pressing between his shoulders to lead him forward. Lance let her, unable to find the will in himself to fight anymore, her words still feeling like fresh wounds in his skin. She rushed them down past three more houses before stopping in front of a pair of rusted gates. She pulled one open and hurried him behind it before shutting it. She stood beside him, a hand still holding onto his arm tightly as she scanned the road in front of them. Lance could see, even through his misty eyes, the shadowy figures standing across the street. He hiccuped a breath and pulled back in surprise. Jess didn’t let him get far, instead turning to look at him, worry written over her expression, “Easy cub.” she cooed, softening her grip, positioning herself so he couldn’t see the figures. “You’re safe here.”

Lance’s chest heaved with every breath and the tears streaming down his cheeks burned paths where they fell.

“They won’t hurt you.”

“They should.” he whispered and the words were like a blade through Jess' chest. Lance could read the hurt so clearly in her eyes that even he felt momentarily guilty for what he said. Jess looked as if she wanted to say something, her lips parting but she deflated, eyes bouncing away.

“Let’s get you inside.” she said and gently pushed him down the long driveway towards the bungalow at the end. Lance let her lead him once again, the ghost of her palm stuck between his shoulder blades. He hesitated when she walked up the porch steps and opened the front door without needing a key.

“Why are you doing this?” Lance asked, the edges of his shoes mere centimetres from the first step.

“Doing what?” she asked, her voice a dip lower than before.

“Helping me.” The air went still between them. He could hear the faint howling through the trees and the cold breeze slipping up the back of his shirt and cooling his wet cheeks. “I am- _was_ a hunter. I’m guessing you’re not human so you shouldn’t be helping me.”

“Why not?” she asked and his hands turned into fists by his sides.

“Because we hate each other!” his voice seemed to echo again, the area too quiet.

She blinked at him, “I don’t hate you.”

Lance, for some odd reason, felt like he wanted to recoil. He swallowed harshly and forced himself to look at her again.

She tilted her head, “Do you hate me?”

His composure sagged, “No.”

Jess shrugged, “Then I’m just helping someone who needs help.” Lance felt like he could cry again, and from the way her eyes seemed to widen he was pretty sure he had started to. Her brows knit together with a kind of nurturing concern and she waved at him to come inside, “It’s cold out there, why don’t you let me make you something warm to eat.” Lance still couldn’t get himself to move and he continued to stare at her, his own fingers starting to dig into the skin on his arms. She scratched the side of her face and took a few slow steps in his direction, “Come on,” she said, her voice soft, “It’s late and we’re both cold and tired and your sad face is starting to make my heart hurt.” Lance whimpered and hugged his own waist, she extended a hand again, slow to touch his arm in case he was to recoil. When he didn’t move she eased him up the stairs and past the front door, shutting it gently behind them.

The panic welled up in his chest again. He didn’t know who she was, or where they were, or _what_ she was. He felt the tremble run through his bones. Jess touched his shoulder and Lance turned to look at her. “Hey,” she said, a warm albeit small smile on her lips, “It’ll be ok, Lance.”

It was like a wave of reassurance washing over him. He nodded slowly and she gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze.

“Do you like grilled cheese?” she asked, stepping away to toe off her shoes. Lance watched her move around the grand open space of the living room and up the little steps to the big kitchen. He watched her and he felt safe; safer than he ever had since his mother’s passing over a year before. “Or we can have french toast.” she called, her back towards him as she searched the fridge. Lance kicked off his own shoes and wiped at his cheeks.

“French toast.” he answered, voice cracking, and shuffled his way over to the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won't be home for the next few days so i decided to post this one v short chapter cause i don't know how long it'll take for me to finish the next one. I'm hoping soon but enjoy this lil glimpse into Jess and Lance's past until then! 
> 
> I'm also thinking about changing the story name so plz don't get too confused if i do :) 
> 
> Thanks for reading!!!


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